Two people have been taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after a four-alarm fire at Toronto Community Housing highrise tower in St. James Town Friday morning.

Toronto Fire Services said they first received reports of a fire in a ninth-floor apartment at 200 Wellesley Street E. around 8:40 a.m.

The home was unoccupied at the time but heavy smoke filled the ninth floor, resulting in some injuries, said Toronto fire Capt. David Eckerman.

The fire has since been extinguished and the firefighters are ventilating the 29-storey building, he said.

Toronto paramedics said two patients were taken to hospital, one with serious, but non-life threatening, injuries. Paramedics were on scene assessing four to five other patients.

At the scene, displaced residents waited in the freezing cold outside for word about where they will get temporary shelter for the night.

“I was told we would be sent to a hotel, but they haven’t told us when that would be happening,” said Joyce Belanger, 70, who lives on the ninth floor.

She said fire officials promised to take her and her neighbours into their units so they could grab a few items.

Belanger said she’s concerned about her safety and has no interest in moving back into her unit. “I really want to be moved off that floor,” she said.

“There are too many fires happening in these buildings over here. It’s scary.”

Spokesperson Bruce Malloch said Toronto Community Housing will be offering assistance to any residents who may be displaced.

Malloch said residents typically want to stay with family or friends in situations like this, but if they’re unable to find a place then TCH would find them a space to stay, likely a hotel.

The unit where the fire started sustained heavy smoke and water damage and two units on the eighth floor sustained significant water damage, said Malloch in a statement.

“Toronto Community Housing staff are working with all evacuated households to ensure they have a place to stay tonight if required. We are confident that the majority of tenants will be able to return to their homes tonight,” he said.

Platoon chief Dan Sell said residents of 26 units on the floor have been displaced and will need overnight shelter.

Sell said it’s too early to say when ninth-floor residents might be able to return to their homes. “There’s a lot of water damage, so we won’t let people go back under those conditions,” said Sell, who added that investigators are on site trying to determine the cause of the fire.

Sell confirmed 200 Wellesley was part of an inspection blitz launched earlier this year after serious electrical problems were identified at nearby St. James Town highrises. The building passed its inspection, he said.

Malloch said Toronto Fire has confirmed that the fire alarm system was working at the time of the fire.

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A video taken from a nearby apartment an posted to Twitter showed white smoke billowing out of a ninth-floor window early Friday morning.

Mayor John Tory announced the inspections in February after serious electrical issues caused an evacuation at 280 Wellesley Street E., months after a six-alarm fire left 1,500 people displaced at 650 Parliament Street. An investigation ruled that fire was caused by a “catastrophic” failure of the electrical system.

In 2010, a six-alarm blaze at 200 Wellesley stranded 1,200 people and hospitalized 14 others. Following a class action, more than 600 tenants were awarded nearly $4.9 million in compensation for that fire.

With files from Donovan Vincent

Raneem Alozzi is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star’s radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @r_alozzi