A person is dead after a five-alarm fire ravaged a highrise near Jane Street and Steeles Avenue West in North York on Friday evening, forcing hundreds out of the building. Flames and smoke seeped out of the 15-storey building at 235 Gosford Blvd home to around 700 residents for hours as roughly 100 firefighters took turns attempting to tame the blaze. Nearly two dozen fire trucks were at the scene. Police initially reported that no one was seriously hurt following the blaze. On Saturday morning, however, fire chief Matthew Pegg revealed a body had been discovered on the 8th floor balcony of the building after the blaze was put out around midnight. `I`d like to offer my condolences on behalf of Toronto Fire services to all the people who have been impacted as a result of this loss,` he told reporters outside the building Saturday morning. `There we`re some units that we could not gain access to.”`It was an extremely difficult fire for our staff to fight, that was coupled with the fact the elevators weren`t working.”The person was found after 1 a.m., he said. Six residents were rescued and treated on scene, with one transported to hospital in stable condition. Firefighters fought the fire from inside the building. The fire escalated quickly and the crew “encountered very significant fires on multiple floors and corresponding heavy smoke,” he said. Floors seven to nine took the brunt of the fire.All the residents in the building have been accounted for, Pegg said. Structural engineers will be coming in to determine if the fire spread through the ventilation system.Chester Yim, a resident of the building, said he pulled into the garage of the building around 5:30 p.m., and messaged the family group chat to let them know he was almost home.A fire alarm started going off but he didn’t think much of it, probably kids.Three minutes later he was sprinting up 12 flights of stairs to the apartment where his wife and two kids, aged 8 and 11, ha ...
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