

Chris Fox and Joshua Freeman, CP24.com





About 60 firefighters were on scene to battle a three-alarm blaze at a rooming house near Castle Frank Station.

The fire was first reported by a passerby who noticed smoke coming from the building on Maple Avenue near Bloor and Sherbourne streets at around 12:45 p.m. Firefighters said it started in the basement.

According to Toronto Fire, crews were quickly able to down the fire in one part of the building however it continued to rage in the back section which was engulfed in flames from the basement up to the third floor.

While the blaze was brought under control quickly, frigid cold conditions made work harder for firefighters at the scene.

“The crews that are working inside they get very wet and then they come outside and they’re basically frozen. So it’s tough on them,” Platoon Chief Trevor Trotter told CP24.

Trotter said new freighters were being cycled in to replace their drenched colleagues, who left the scene to warm up after battling the fire for a period.

Officials at the scene said no one was home when the blaze broke out and there were no injuries reported.

Officials are working to notify the owners of the building.

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