Hours after a five-alarm fire killed one person and caused extensive damage to a pair of downtown buildings, Joseph Cohen stood across the street, just staring pensively at the scene.

“The worst. Just awful,” said Cohen, who is a regular customer at one landmark neighbourhood business — Corrado’s Barbershop.

Fire crews responded to a call at a residential building at Bathurst St. and Richmond St. W. at 5:30 a.m. Monday. By mid-morning, smoke and flames could be seen pouring out of two side-by-side addresses at 160 and 162 Bathurst St., which contains the famous barbershop.

Toronto Fire Capt. Adrian Ratushniak confirmed that two people were pulled from the fire — one with life-threatening injuries and the other with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, according to paramedics. One of the two people later succumbed to the injuries, Ratushniak confirmed.

By noon, the smoke had cleared and the fire appeared to be completely out, revealing broken windows and blackened interiors in both 160 and 162 Bathurst.

As fire crews and police officers combed through the area and continued investigations, neighbours expressed sympathy and concern for victims’ families. Several families of the two lowrise buildings and those in adjacent apartments had to be evacuated and seek temporary refuge with friends and families.

For Cohen, this fire meant more than just a regular accident. This was the only place he can remember going for his haircut in a long time.

“The barber is a young man. I know him by his face. So bad that this is happening to him,” he said, noting the barbershop had brought a stronger sense of community. “I want him to come back. We need him. I hope he doesn’t look for a new location.”

Longtime barber Corrado Accaputo, who first started working at the location in 1957, told reporters at the scene he owns both affected addresses. He said tenants told him about the fire early Monday morning.

His shop, which had walls filled with several decades’ worth of memorabilia, appeared gutted by the fire.

Edward Bareford, who said he used to live in an apartment in one of two buildings, said he was at the barbershop about two days ago and was planning to get a haircut there “one of these days.”

“Walking in there always felt great,” he told the Star while standing on the porch at a nearby house.

“Just old-school. None of the fancy stuff and loud music. Real people, chit-chatting and having a laugh.”

Many people in the area opened their doors and welcomed those who were evacuated by the fire — a testament to how closely tight residents feel about each other, said Sean Galvan, who lives just steps from the scene.

“This is one of a few residential areas left around here,” he said. “It’s very sad that somebody lost their life.”

In the aftermath, neighbours also created a GoFundMe page to support those displaced residents. The page had raised $4,000 by late afternoon.

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Jason Wydra, who lives in an apartment next door to the fire, said he and other residents in his building were told to evacuate immediately and were sheltered in waiting buses outside.

He later went to his apartment to pick up his two cats, which were unharmed.

“Look at all the broken windows.” he said. “These buildings are like 100 years old but I never thought I’d see anything like this.”

At the scene, fire investigator Capt. Marc Dunn said the fire appears to have started in the basement of 160 Bathurst, but it’s still too early to know the cause.

“The roof right now is unstable and it has to be looked at by an engineer before our crews can go in to fully investigate,” he said.

“We will probably be here for a couple of days.”

Four apartments above the popular pub next door, Football Factory, have also been evacuated due to water damage from the firefighting efforts. Pub co-owner Chrissy Whittick said she expects the pub to be closed down for a few more days.

“This has been 12 years of our life and watching it get very smoky was a big concern, especially for tenants in the building,” she said, noting some of the residents in the affected buildings are or have been employed at the pub.

“This is a neighbourhood with wonderful people and we all come together and like to take care of each other.”

Ratushniak said about 17 fire trucks and 65 firefighters were dispatched to the scene.

At various times during the day police had to close down Bathurst St. between Queen St. W. and Richmond St. W. The 511 Bathurst streetcar was detouring due to the fire, as well as the 145 Downtown/Humber Bay Express bus, according to the TTC.

With files from Ilya Banares