Two people were badly burned after a fire broke out in the elevator of an apartment building in Toronto's east end Thursday afternoon, police said.
Police and fire officials were called to the building at 500 Dawes Rd. north of Danforth Avenue just before 2 p.m.
They discovered a fire in the highrise building's elevator, with heavy black smoke reported throughout the building as the elevator shaft acted like a chimney.
Residents said the building's superintendant and a maintenance worker were working in one of the elevators when an explosion was heard.
"I heard an explosion and two men were running out of the elevator, burnt," one resident told reporters.
Officials said two people were taken to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre with burns to 40 per cent of their lower bodies.
Another seven people were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.
Several residents in the building were seen out on their balconies as they waited to learn the severity of the three-alarm fire. A number of TTC buses were also on the scene to provide temporary shelter to the residents.
Dawes Road was closed between Gower and Beth Streets, north of Danforth Avenue for more than five hours, but was re-opened just after 7 p.m.
