Decision On Rebuilding Sassafraz Unknown, As Artist Celebrates Fire ‘Miracle’

Now all that remains of Sassafraz on Cumberland St. is some rubble, a few hoses, some yellow police tape and lots of uncertainty about the future of the local landmark.

The five-alarm fire that struck the building Wednesday caused $3 million damage and the owners still aren’t sure if they’ll try to rebuild.

Nearly 140 firefighters amd 29 trucks were on the scene at the height of the blaze, which officials believe started with a small grease fire in the kitchen, and eventually spread to the walls and attic of the 94-year-old structure.

Peter Castle was the man who first ran into the restaurant to warn patrons to get out. “I banged on the windows at first,” he recalls. “Then I opened up the doors and instructed them there was a fire going on in the building …You could see the smoke was pretty thick.”

Officials still aren’t sure why it spread so fast, but insist there’s no sign the blaze was deliberately set. 

“There is nothing at this point that would indicate suspicious by no stretch of the imagination,” confirms Fire Marshal Mariano Perini.

Yet in the midst of so much destruction, there was something of a miracle. While much of the interior was consumed by fire, one local artist is stunned to discover her paintings emerged from the inferno untouched.

Sabine Berzina painted 20 portraits of the city and had them on display inside the restaurant. When crews extinguished the flames after a battle that lasted several hours, they ventured inside.

And despite the odds, all her works were there intact, without any real damage.

“Every single one of them is rescued,” she marvels. “Toronto firefighters are amazing. They were so careful. Just seeing them walking out of the building holding my paintings, that was quite unreal. I would never imagine that sight. Yeah, they’re all here and I’m just so overwhelmed and thankful and quite an experience.”

She calls them part of her life’s work and labels them ‘priceless’.

Those who battled the flames are equally astounded that the fire left them unscathed on the second floor.
 
“When you go up there, like the ceiling is all collapsed, the roof all opened up, a lot of damage. Miraculously 20 paintings survived the fire here. Her paintings were up on the wall,” outlines Capt. Mike Strapko. “There’s only one that I saw that was knocked down during the structural collapse and the bottom part was actually in the water.

“The paintings did get wet, however the fire marshal had the firefighters carry out the paintings, he photographed them all. We put them on our command vehicle here to dry out and the artist appears to be quite pleased her paintings have survived this … fire.”

A few of the pictures are worth up to $5,000. Some of the restaurant’s computers and a cash box also survived the blaze.

The intersection of Bellair and Cumberland may remain closed for a few days yet, as investigators check out the site. Traffic in the rest of Yorkville has returned to normal.

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