Two Toronto firefighters were seriously injured battling a four-alarm fire early Saturday in an abandoned high-rise.
Both firefighters were hurt following a three-story fall from the building, The Canadian Press reports. They had been drilling holes in order to vent the building so firefighters could begin a search for anyone inside.
“They were working very very hard under very challenging conditions,” Toronto Fire Chief told the Press. “It’s dark, there’s a large volume of smoke that’s emanating from a very, very aggressive fire.”
One firefighter—a 36-year veteran fire captain—was critically injured in the fall, while the other broke a leg. The firefighter with the broken leg is expected to recover.
One fire official told the Press that the firefighters possibly believed they had steady footing on the building's roof when the fall happened. Investigators are trying to determine the cause of the fire and looking into the circumstances surrounding the accident.
“It is a tough day, and any point in time when any member of our service is injured, it’s something that all of us feel,” Pegg told the Press. “There’s a real sense of a concern almost from a family level here.”
