Residents still can't return to TCH building where fire left one dead

Residents of a community housing building where a three-alarm blaze left one person dead and five others in hospital are still awaiting word about when they can return home.

• 1 person dead, 150 without a home after 3-alarm fire at downtown TCH building

Flames broke out around 5:45 p.m. Thursdayin a unit on the fourth floor of the building on George Street nearDundasStreetand quickly spread to an adjacent unit, Fire Captain DavidEckerman said.

Within about 15 minutes, it was designated a three-alarm fire.

On Friday, the president and CEO of Toronto Community Housing said he was still waiting to have the building released back to his staff so clean-up could begin.

"We also can't activate most of our clean-up crews until we understand that we're okay to do so," Greg Spearn told reporters outside the building. "But as soon as we get that word we will be doing clean-up to get people home just as soon as we possibly can."

The worst of the damage is on the fourth floor, he said, but he expects there will be extensive smoke damage on the fifth floor, as well as water damage on the first through to the third floors.

"The structure is fine, but I'm expecting that the fourth floor will take quite a bit of time to get back on line," Spearn said.

About 150 residents live in the building. TCH secured rooms at two nearby hotels for some of them, while others stayed with friends or at community centres, Spearn said.

He noted that the building's residents are very "close-knit," and "they are helping to support each other."

There still wasn't word Friday morning on the fire's cause.

Toronto Fire and the Ontario Fire Marshal were on scene investigating.

Building a 'jewel,' councillor says

Coun. KristynWong-Tam, whose ward includes the building as well as 18 other TCH properties, said George Street is often in the news for crime and poverty-related issues in the neighbourhood. But this building is the "jewel" of her ward for how both TCH and the residents have worked to improve conditions.

"It doesn't have the finest finishes, but this building has been a turn-around story for us," Wong-Tam told CBC Radio'sMetro Morningon Friday, noting that "a host of services" have been added,such as housing support workers and24-hoursecurity.

"So this is a building that has seen more improvements than many of my buildings, so I was very disheartened to see that there were residents displaced. They need stability, they need support. And they've been actually supporting each other, building a stronger and more resilient community in their complex."