Yonge Street between Dundas and Gerrard streets will be closed throughout the weekend as engineers and city building inspectors try to determine why a wall collapsed early Friday, sending a pile of bricks crashing to the sidewalk.
The Toronto Police Service said no one was injured when part of a brick wall fell from the second floor of a three-storey building near Ryerson University’s busy downtown campus.
The collapse occurred at the intersection of Yonge and Gould streets. Rubble lay scattered across the Gould Street sidewalk and the area remained marked off with yellow police tape Friday afternoon.
The building at 335A Yonge Street is believed to be over 100 years old and had undergone a series of interior and exterior renovations over the years.
Engineers from Murray Demolition and the City of Toronto were called in to assess the stability of the structure, which houses a Salad King and Tatami Japanese restaurant on the ground floor. The cause of the collapse has yet to be determined.
Jim Locklin, deputy chief building inspector for the city, said that an emergency order was issued requiring the owner to hire engineers to assess the stability of the building, and to eliminate any danger.
“It’s a responsibility of building owners to maintain their buildings including its exterior and structural stability in a way that is maintaining safety of all time,” Locklin said, adding that the collapse of the wall appeared to have left other parts of the building vulnerable.
“The floor of the third storey needs to be supported. We need to find a way to shore that up,” Locklin explained.