Efforts to extinguish historic fire at 2 Toronto buildings to go ‘into next week’

Toronto’s fire chief says residents currently evacuated from two buildings in the Thorncliffe Park area due to an ongoing fire will remain away from their homes until at least next week.

Fire Chief Jim Jessop told reporters on Wednesday he recognized this message is “hard to hear” but is necessary.

“The building will remain evacuated until further notice,” Jessop said. “We cannot provide a specific timeframe as to when the fire will be extinguished, except to say evacuation will continue at least into next week.”

Jessop went on to say that the decision was made after careful review by an engineering team involved with the effort to extinguish the fire.

The fire started on Nov. 27, with fire crews called to a highrise apartment building at 11 Thorncliffe Park Dr., where they found “ligh