dik
Structural
- Apr 13, 2001
- 25,843
From the Toronto Star:
The rear of portion of the old Uptown Theatre in downtown Toronto collapsed this morning, caving in the roof of an adjacent building, killing one person and trapping others in the rubble.
According to Toronto Fire Chief Bill Stewart, 14 people have been pulled from the rubble and sent to hospital for treatment. One other person is still trapped.
Police say only that the deceased is a male who was confirmed dead on the scene.
Stewart described the operation to locate and rescue the trapped people as 'painstaking,' saying he feared that any precipitous action might cause a second collapse.
The collapse happened at 10:30 this morning, while demolition crews were working on tearing down the shuttered Toronto landmark.
"The rear of portion of the old Uptown Theatre in downtown Toronto collapsed this morning, caving in the roof of an adjacent building," Stewart said.
The affected building is 13 Balmuto St., directly south of the Uptown Theatre.
“A piece of the wall from the theatre they were demolishing fell through the length of the building," said John Harrington, a teacher at Yorkville English Academy. Several students from the school are feared injured and/or trapped.
Employees and residents in nearby buildings have been told to evacuate because of fears of a gas leak. The smell of gas is distinct in the area around the collapse and Enbridge Gas is on scene investigating.
Mayor David Miller arrived on the scene shortly before noon. He said that the Uptown's demolition would be reviewed and that the cause of the collapse would be probed.
According to Harrington, many of the students and teachers at the school were on break at the time of the collapse.
But some students remained behind to work at the school's computers.
"Some people were sitting in front of the computers … they got the brunt of it," Harrington said.
There were at least three children attending classes at the time, ages 8, 10 and 11, according to Harrington. An unknown number of adults were also attending ESL classes at the school.
"I thought the building was blowing up," Isa Ho, manager of the ScotiaBank branch just north of the theatre on the corner of Balmuto and Bloor St. W., said of the collapse.
One of the employees at the bank was hurt when a portion of the second-floor ceiling collapsed, according to Ho.
Many surrounding streets, including Bloor St. between Bay and Yonge, have been closed.
The Uptown Theatre first opened in 1920 and quickly became a city landmark.
In May, Famous Players sold the building for $10 million to Piagga Ltd., a developer that plans to put up a 50-storey condo tower on the site. The Uptown was one of three old theatres closed in recent months in a battle over wheelchair access.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission ordered Famous Players to make the Uptown, the Eglinton and the Plaza fully accessible but the company decided to close the theatres instead.
The Star's Martin Knelman reported that the Uptown was one of the few theatres actually owned by Famous Players, which mostly leases the facilities.
Famous Players has announced that it will replace the Uptown with a 10-screen movie centre across the street, which will be part of a condo-plus-retail complex at 1 Bloor St. E. planned by the development company Nastapoka.
The rear of portion of the old Uptown Theatre in downtown Toronto collapsed this morning, caving in the roof of an adjacent building, killing one person and trapping others in the rubble.
According to Toronto Fire Chief Bill Stewart, 14 people have been pulled from the rubble and sent to hospital for treatment. One other person is still trapped.
Police say only that the deceased is a male who was confirmed dead on the scene.
Stewart described the operation to locate and rescue the trapped people as 'painstaking,' saying he feared that any precipitous action might cause a second collapse.
The collapse happened at 10:30 this morning, while demolition crews were working on tearing down the shuttered Toronto landmark.
"The rear of portion of the old Uptown Theatre in downtown Toronto collapsed this morning, caving in the roof of an adjacent building," Stewart said.
The affected building is 13 Balmuto St., directly south of the Uptown Theatre.
“A piece of the wall from the theatre they were demolishing fell through the length of the building," said John Harrington, a teacher at Yorkville English Academy. Several students from the school are feared injured and/or trapped.
Employees and residents in nearby buildings have been told to evacuate because of fears of a gas leak. The smell of gas is distinct in the area around the collapse and Enbridge Gas is on scene investigating.
Mayor David Miller arrived on the scene shortly before noon. He said that the Uptown's demolition would be reviewed and that the cause of the collapse would be probed.
According to Harrington, many of the students and teachers at the school were on break at the time of the collapse.
But some students remained behind to work at the school's computers.
"Some people were sitting in front of the computers … they got the brunt of it," Harrington said.
There were at least three children attending classes at the time, ages 8, 10 and 11, according to Harrington. An unknown number of adults were also attending ESL classes at the school.
"I thought the building was blowing up," Isa Ho, manager of the ScotiaBank branch just north of the theatre on the corner of Balmuto and Bloor St. W., said of the collapse.
One of the employees at the bank was hurt when a portion of the second-floor ceiling collapsed, according to Ho.
Many surrounding streets, including Bloor St. between Bay and Yonge, have been closed.
The Uptown Theatre first opened in 1920 and quickly became a city landmark.
In May, Famous Players sold the building for $10 million to Piagga Ltd., a developer that plans to put up a 50-storey condo tower on the site. The Uptown was one of three old theatres closed in recent months in a battle over wheelchair access.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission ordered Famous Players to make the Uptown, the Eglinton and the Plaza fully accessible but the company decided to close the theatres instead.
The Star's Martin Knelman reported that the Uptown was one of the few theatres actually owned by Famous Players, which mostly leases the facilities.
Famous Players has announced that it will replace the Uptown with a 10-screen movie centre across the street, which will be part of a condo-plus-retail complex at 1 Bloor St. E. planned by the development company Nastapoka.
