Businesses, residents affected by Mississauga explosion to return Friday
Posted February 16, 2018 12:14 pm.
Last Updated February 16, 2018 1:41 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Dozens of business owners and residents forced out after an explosion in Mississauga last weekend will be allowed to return on Friday.
Fire Chief Tim Beckett said 104 businesses and 24 homes were affected by the blast on Hurontario Street and the city found temporary shelter for 58 residents.
Residents will be allowed back in their homes at 1 p.m. and — except for the building where the explosion happened — all business owners will be allowed back to assess damage and make repairs.
The three people taken to hospital — a 39-year-old man with serious injuries and a 43-year-old woman and six-year-old boy with minor injuries — are “doing well,” Beckett said.
A 50-year-old man and a young child were treated at the scene and released.
Beckett said the Office of the Fire Marshal began investigating ground zero on Thursday and will remain at the site until Saturday evening.
The cause will be determined over the next few months.
He said the explosion had a “huge economic impact,” but didn’t have an estimate of the cost of the damage, which he said continues to rise as more resources are brought in.
Coun. Nando Iannicca said although the building looks like a conventional plaza, it has several owners and renters and they all have individual insurance agreements.
“This is a condo without a condominium agreement. Everybody owns their unit individually and/or rents the unit,” he said.
“So, if you can imagine when these were built back in the day they were the perfect live-work communities. It was usually the newer Canadians bought the unit individually, worked downstairs, lived upstairs, and over time they severed off the top units, sold them. They became commercial; they became rental.”
Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services is inspecting buildings in the area and working with Enbridge Gas to ensure they are up to code.
Three northbound lanes of Hurontario and one southbound lane have reopened.
By comparison, the explosion on Hickory Drive in June 2016 affected more than 700 people, and it took a year before people were back in their homes.
