Crews battle 5-alarm industrial fire in Toronto’s west end

Fire crews battled a large five-alarm industrial fire that broke out in Toronto’s west end Thursday morning.

Toronto Fire tells CityNews they responded to the fire at a chrome plating business on Nashville Road, in the area of Weston and Rogers roads, around 10:15 a.m.

“Crews arrived to heavy smoke and flame coming from the building,” said fire officials in a post on X.

Officials said there were around 80 firefighters at the scene at the peak of the blaze and efforts continued late Thursday afternoon to contain the fire. The effort to extinguish the flames was complicated due to the building’s roof partially collapsing.

Toronto’s Fire Chief Matthew Pegg says crews were forced into a defensive operation and that firefighters attacked the blaze from the outside.

Pegg said the fire investigations team is on site but at this time, there is no indication of what may have caused the fire. The Office of the Fire Marshal and the Ministry of the Environment is also on the scene.

The building was evacuated and no injuries have been reported. Fire officials say everyone who was inside the business before the fire broke out has been accounted for.

Heavy smoke continued to cover the surrounding area and some flames were still visible as of the early afternoon.

The area borders a major rail corridor and all rail activity in the area was temporarily put on hold, including trains along the Kitchener GO line. Metrolinx confirms Kitchener GO and UP Express trains had resumed as of noon.

Crews used pumper trucks to blast water onto the fire from the opposite side of the tracks.