A historic downtown Toronto tavern survived a three-alarm fire relatively unscathed, but those living in the apartments above the bar found themselves without a home on Friday.
Firefighters rushed to the Black Bull tavern at about 9:30 p.m. Thursday night after an apartment on the building's third floor caught fire.
Rob Taylor, the manager of the 177-year-old pub, said there were about 80 people inside the pub at 298 Queen St. W. when the blaze broke out. He said the bar was only affected when its gas line was cut.
"There is no damage to the bar," said Taylor. "The water ran down, but went down a drain in the floor. The only thing we have left to do is have the gas turned back on."
Upstairs, however, small apartments that were home to about 20 tenants were left charred and barren by the fire. Fire crews fought the blaze for about two hours before they finally doused the flames just before midnight.
Toronto Fire Capt. Mike Strapko said it was the contents of an apartment, and not the building, that burned during the three-alarm blaze.
Strapko said crews rescued one man in his 50s and rushed him to Toronto General Hospital with minor burns and smoke inhalation.
Another man in his 80s managed to get out of the building himself and was transported to Toronto Western Hospital with smoke inhalation, Strapko added.
Taylor said about 20 people live in the apartments above the bar, all of whom found themselves without places to stay Thursday night.
He told CTV Toronto's Tamara Cherry that the fire started in one messy unit, the tenant of which he had been trying to evict for the past six months.
Displaced tenant Jacob Vikovic said that he would be forced to stay at a local shelter for the time being.
"I have no place to live, I don't have financial ability to do something about it, I don't know where to go, who to ask for help," Vikovic said.
Several other men were filled with similar doubts as they wandered outside their shattered home on Friday.
Salvation Army Capt. Ron Farr said the loss of a long-time home can be a very scarring experience.
"Some, depending on a person's make-up, may suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome from something like this. Others will take it in a little more of stride," he said.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Tamara Cherry
