Historic church ‘completely destroyed’ in blaze: fire chief

A historic church in Toronto’s west end has been “completely destroyed,” says the city’s fire chief, as firefighters continue to battle the four-alarm blaze Sunday that has tore through the structure.

Toronto Fire said crews received report of a fire inside St. Anne’s Anglican Church on Gladstone Avenue near Dundas Street West just before 8 a.m.

Deputy Fire Chief Jim Jessop said crews are gaining control of the fire — but the damage has been done.

“The building is completely destroyed right now and as are all the artifacts inside,” Jessop told reporters at the scene.

“This is a devastating loss for the community.”

Rev. Don Beyers, a parish priest at the church, says the congregation is “greatly devastated,” to learn about the fire damage. The 124-year-old church in the city’s Little Portugal neighbourhood, houses early paintings by three Group of Seven artists that were installed in the church in the 1920s.

“I’m crushed, I feel for my people. You can’t imagine what this is like for a church community to come on Sunday morning to find that everything you worked so hard for and done so much for [is] gone in the matter of an hour,” Beyers said outside the church Sunday. 

“Despite this terrible tragedy and loss, we as a church will continue on,” adding that the aftermath so far of the fire looks like a total loss of the building.

Crews still working to extinguish spot fires

Jessop said the fire was deep-seated when crews first arrived at the scene Sunday morning. 

“Nobody was here, the church was locked, secure, all the lights were off,” Beyers said, adding that he is often the first person who is there in the mornings. “It’s a real mystery to us how this even happened.”

A Sunday service was scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. at the church in Little Portugal, according to the its website. 

Water towers and crews were set up for exterior firefighting operations, they said earlier Sunday morning.

Police said they received reports of windows breaking and heavy smoke coming from the building.

Adjoining homes were evacuated as a safety precaution and have been protected from the blaze, Jessop said.

The main body of the fire was knocked down as of 9:55 a.m., with crews continuing to extinguish spot fires.

Toronto Fire Services spokesman Deepak Chagger said there are no reports of occupants or injuries.

Chagger says there is “no indication that anything was saved,” though the loss of the iconic works has not been confirmed.

Gladstone Avenue is closed between College and Dundas streets as crews work to bring the blaze under control. Police are advising motorists and pedestrians to use alternate routes. 

Ontario’s Office of the Fire Marshal will be notified and an investigation into the cause of the fire is underway.

Church designated national historic site

​St. Anne’s Anglican Church, built in 1907-1908, was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1996. In 1980, the City of Toronto also designated the church under the Ontario Heritage Act.

“The design of the church is in the Byzantine style, which is very unusual for an Anglican church,” the Ontario Heritage Trust website reads. 

“St. Anne’s is constructed of concrete and brick and characterized by a cruciform plan with a distinctive central dome, 21 meters [70 feet] in height.”

The organizers of Do West Fest, a street festival in Little Portugal that stretches from Ossington Avenue to Lansdowne Avenue on Dundas Street W., said it will have a delayed start on Sunday due to the fire at St. Annes, just steps away from the festival. 

“Our first concern was for the safety of our community and everyone at the festival’s devastated, [the church] is such an important community landmark,” said festival organizer Kristyn Gelfand.

“We’re trying to work out the logistics with police and fire and entire emergency response teams to make sure we give them space to do the work that they need to do.”

The festival was originally scheduled to start at 11 a.m. A new start time has not been released yet.