Toronto Community Housing says it could be a matter of months before the residents of a seniors apartment in Malvern who were displaced by Friday’s fatal fire can return home.

Lisa Murray said Sunday that TCH officials are still waiting for the Ontario Fire Marshal to release the fifth floor of Neilson Hall Apartments at 1315 Neilson Rd., where a two-alarm blaze Friday killed three people and sent 15 others to hospital, so they can assess the damage.

Residents of the building’s first four floors were allowed back home Friday, but all 28 units on the fifth, where the fire was centred, have been evacuated. Some families have been temporarily shifted to hotels, while others are staying with friends.

“Once we know the full scope of work we’ll have a much better idea of how long it will be before residents can move back in, but it may not be before a couple of months,” Murray said.

Until then, she said, TCH is “finalizing plans” to temporarily settle the displaced residents in its other buildings.

Officials have declined to release the names of the victims, but Citynews reported Sunday that Hyacinth Roberts, 72, and her husband Charles, 91, were among those killed in the fire, which investigators say may have been fuelled by polyethylene lounge furniture set up at the intersection of two hallways.

Family members of the victims gathered Sunday for a small memorial on the main floor of the apartment building, but asked press for privacy.

Fire officials have said that a more thorough sprinkler system in the 126-unit building could have saved lives. Those safeguards are mandated for licensed care facilities with “vulnerable” populations, but those standards don’t apply to TCH’s “Senior Citizen Resident Developments,” which aren’t recognized by law as seniors’ homes.

The building was last inspected by Toronto Fire Services in 2013, while TCH officials most recently tested its fire-safety equipment on Jan. 22 of this year.