Residents of two Toronto apartment buildings were able to visit their homes briefly on Saturday, two days after power was knocked out at both buildings in separate incidents.

At 3650 Kingston Road, a pair of apparent explosions occurred around 2:30 a.m. Thursday morning, damaging the nine-storey condominium building's electrical room and an outdoor transformer.

With repairs needed inside and outside the building, hydro has yet to be restored and residents have not been able to return home because of fire and safety concerns.

On Saturday afternoon, the City of Toronto allowed residents to return, two floors at a time, to retrieve medication, important paper and clothing, and other important items.

The city offered the following schedule for Saturday and Sunday:

  • Floors 1 and 2 at 1 p.m.
  • Floors 3 and 4 at 1:40 p.m.
  • Floors 5 and 6 at 2:20 p.m.
  • Floors 7 and 8 at 3 p.m.
  • Floor 9 at 3:40 p.m.

City spokesperson Patricia Trott told ctvtoronto.ca on Friday that 500 adults and 150 children live in the building. Since being barred from the building on Thursday, they have been forced to live with friends or family, or take up temporary shelter at a nearby community centre.

Residents were to be updated about the situation at the Scarborough Village Community Centre on Saturday morning.

Lakeshore Boulevard fire

At a four-storey apartment building located at 2369 Lake Shore Blvd., some residents were also granted temporary access to their residences on Saturday.

Firefighters rushed to that building just after 1 p.m. Thursday, to fight a three-alarm fire at the building. The next day, Toronto police were busy cleaning up a three-unit grow-op found following the fire that may be linked to the cause of the blaze in the building's electrical room.

Because of the damage caused by the fire and the grow-op, it is not clear when residents of the 92-unit building will be able to return home.

The City of Toronto said residents from the first, second and fourth floors would be granted temporary access to retrieve important items on Saturday afternoon.

The city offered the following schedule for Saturday:

  • Fourth floor, from noon until 2 pm
  • Second floor, from 2 pm until 4 pm
  • First floor from 4 pm until 6 pm

Third-floor residents were not allowed to return on Saturday because of safety issues resulting from the fire.

With files from CTV Toronto