The future of one of Toronto’s favourite French restaurants is up in the air after a blaze ripped through it early Tuesday morning. Chantecler, a fixture in the Parkdale dining scene, is temporarily closed following the three-alarm fire.
Crews were called to the building, which also contains rental housing, in the wee hours of the morning after reports of the fire.
Great work by @Toronto_Fire crews to access and control the fire in this building on Queen Street West. All occupants are out of the building and accounted for without injury. 3rd alarm assigned. @TPFFA pic.twitter.com/G6300NPYtz
— Matthew Pegg (@ChiefPeggTFS) November 19, 2019
Fire Chief Matthew Pegg, who was on site on Tuesday morning, shared an image of the aftermath on Twitter and congratulated the firefighters for getting all residents out without injury.
FIRE Queen St W near Brock Ave – commercial property. Queen St W is now closed in the area. Choose an alternate. @tps11div @trafficservices 2231741 ^ma pic.twitter.com/mPDH5PK90f
— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) November 19, 2019
The fire was escalated to a three-alarm response when additional resources were called in due to the age of the building ––built in 1881––and its proximity to the other buildings in the neighbourhood.
According to Pegg, the fire was “intense initially” and “got into the walls of the building and extended vertically across all three floors.” He explains that the challenge of the blaze was that it quickly “moved laterally and vertically.”
The upper floor appears to have incurred the most damage. The image provided by Pegg and the restaurant show a broken third story window.
Chantecler also posted an image to Instagram stating, “there’s been a fire at 1320 Queen. Everyone is safe. We don’t believe it was a kitchen fire.” The investigation continues as to the cause of the fire.
Both Chantecler and its affiliated butcher Boucherie will be closed for the foreseeable future.
