'Suspicious' fire tears through popular Toronto restaurant

A fire that caused significant damage to a downtown restaurant on Tuesday morning appears to be suspicious, officials say.

Crews were first called to Myth restaurant near King Street and Spadina Avenue just before 5 a.m. for a two-alarm fire.

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Platoon Chief Kevin Shaw told reporters at the scene that a patio located at the rear of three-storey building was “fully involved” by the time firefighters arrived.

He said that the fire then migrated inside the building, eventually spreading to the second floor.

Within about an hour, crews were able to get the blaze under control.

No injuries were reported.

“Had the sprinklers not activated it would be a different situation here. But our crews did a good job knocking down the fire. There was a lot of hidden fire between the floor joists,” Shaw said. “It is suspicious, that is all I will say.”

Shaw said that there was nobody inside the building at the time of the fire.

He said that firefighters had to use forced entry to gain entry to the building as a result.

The blaze, Shaw said, eventually spread to some vacant office space on the second floor but was mostly contained to the “back half if the building.”

“The front section, there was no smoke migration in there,” he said.

No estimate has been provided for the total value of the damage to the building.

Police are investigating.