The timing couldn’t have been worse.

Jennifer Wong had finished moving her belongings into her new College St. apartment around 9 p.m. Sunday.

Two hours later, a fire started in the building’s basement, quickly growing into a six-alarm blaze that gutted a computer store, injured two firefighters and drove 40 people from their homes.

“We were just getting all ready to settle in, just looking forward to the school year. Then this happened,” said Wong, a 20-year-old University of Toronto student.

Wong was among a handful of tenants, mostly students, standing outside the charred building Monday afternoon, hoping for a chance to salvage some of their items.

However, the first floor collapsed during the fire, potentially jeopardizing the building’s structural integrity. The fire marshal’s office must conduct a structural assessment before anybody — investigators and tenants alike — get inside.

“Right now it would be completely unsafe to send someone in there to start doing something,” said fire marshal investigator Mike Ross. “We’ve been able to retrieve some things like Ids, but clothes and things, no.”

The sidewalk outside 368 College, which is home to a Canada Computers store and six apartment units, was littered with printers, their boxes soaked from the fire hoses and rain. Inside, cables and headphones hung from walls, their plastic packaging twisted and melted by the heat of the fire.

Gordon Chan, the building’s landlord and store owner, said the damage was “definitely over $1 million.”

Despite the extensive damage, none of the building’s tenants or nearby residents were hurt in the blaze. One firefighter was treated for smoke inhalation and another suffered a minor leg injury. One tenant’s cat died, Chan said.

Di Yan, 25, who lives in the neighbouring building, left his apartment in just a T-shirt after a friend noticed smoke.

“I thought we would only be outside for 20 minutes,” he said, adding he realized the magnitude of the blaze only after fire crews used a saw to cut through the store’s metal window covers.

It took about 100 firefighters and more than 20 trucks nearly four hours to combat the fire.

“We tried to cut holes in the first floor to drop a line through and cool the basement,” said Capt. David Eckerman. “But the first floor burnt and collapsed and we had to evacuate the firefighters.”

Fire crews will be stationed outside the building to tackle any lingering embers smouldering beneath the wreckage.

“Once you’re pulling stuff apart, you’re allowing oxygen . . . you’re going to have flare-ups,” Ross said.

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City housing representatives were on scene Monday to help the tenants find a new place to live. In the meantime, Wong will return to Vaughan to live with her parents.

“This is my first time renting a place,” she said. “It’s not the best experience.”