Historic Peacock Hotel engulfed by fire
A fire “fully engulfed” the Peacock Hotel in the Junction overnight Thursday, the second one to hit the historic building in less than a year.
Firefighters arrived to a scene of heavy smoke and large flames at the hotel at 2762 Dundas St. W. east of Keele St. at about 3:30 a.m. Thursday, Toronto Fire District Chief Stephan Powell told the Star.
Sixty-five firefighters and 15 vehicles were called to put out the three-alarm blaze, which was downgraded to a onealarm fire by about 7 a.m. and later extinguished, Powell said.
Powell said he couldn’t confirm if there were any people in the building at the time, but said neighbouring occupants were “strongly advised” to evacuate as firefighters cleared the building room-by-room.
“There’s lots of damage to the building because it was fully engulfed in flames,” Powell said, adding that workers could be clearing the scene for hours.
“The investigation into what caused the fire could take time,” Powell said.
“City engineers will need to be called to assess the structural damage while investigators continue working.”
Toronto firefighters have battled a number of major fires this year, including the Detroit Eatery in January, the Agincourt Recreation Centre in February, Corrado’s Barbershop in March and York Memorial C.I. this month.
The number of fires that have taken place in commercial buildings in 2019 is “abnormal,” fire chief Matthew Pegg said. “We have responded to a number of significant fires lately,” he said.
It’s also the second fire at the Peacock Hotel in under a year.
An earlier fire in August caused the rear of the building to partially collapse, Powell said. It has since been abandoned but some dwellers remain, he said.
The three-storey heritage hotel has a history that dates back to the 1830s when it was run by James Farr and his family, according to archives from the Toronto Reference Library.
It was outside the Peacock Hotel that William Lyon Mackenzie, former mayor of Toronto, began the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion with Farr and his men.
The building burned down in 1878, according to the Toronto Historical Association, and was rebuilt by 1890. It received heritage status by the city in 1996.
There were no injuries reported.