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TORONTO — Three people are dead following a fire on the top floor of a five-storey senior’s apartment building in Scarborough.

The fire broke out around 3:10 p.m. Friday at Neilson Hall Apartments, a Toronto Community Housing property at 1315 Neilson Rd. catering to seniors. Located just adjacent to the Malvern Town Centre, the building is about one kilometre west of the Toronto Zoo.

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With thick black smoke rolling through the building’s hallways, ladder trucks were used to smash through windows and evacuate injured residents from the affected fifth floor.

“The hallways were so full of smoke that it was impossible to bring them (through the hallways) to an exit,” Toronto Fire Commander Bob O’Halloran told reporters outside the building.

Four of the injured were taken to hospital in critical condition and three were pronounced dead. Fifteen more were being treated at hospital for smoke inhalation and other injuries.