St Anne's Anglican church fire

[NorthernRedneck]

Wow. St. Anne's Anglican church in Toronto was destroyed by fire today.

The church, built in 1907-1908 in the city's Little Portugal neighbourhood, houses early paintings by three Group of Seven artists that were installed in the church in the 1920s. The murals decorated the chancel and the dome, which was destroyed by the blaze.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-fire-church-dufferin-dundas-street-west-1.7229569

 

[Doc]

What a shame. A huge loss. Thankfully it was not full of people when this happened.
Hopefully it was not arson.

 

[FrancSevin]

Sad, So much history up in smoke.

 

[Melensdad]

What a shame. A huge loss. Thankfully it was not full of people when this happened.
Hopefully it was not arson.

Curious to hear the cause of the blaze and given the high number of arsons at churches over the past year I would not be surprised if it turns out to be arson. Church arsons are one of the most under-reported crimes. The only way I hear about them is thru church reports, not thru mainstream media sources.

 

[Melensdad]

From this news reports I can see this morning:

St. Anne's Anglican Church, national historic site in Toronto, destroyed by 4-alarm fire

Toronto emergency crews were called to St. Anne's Anglican Church on Gladstone Avenue near Dundas Street West just before 8 a.m. on Sunday.

toronto.citynews.ca

Jessop said that given the heat of the flames, the building’s age and the amount of water used to extinguish the fire, it’s “probable” there will be further collapses of the structure.​

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Officials said there were no reports of any injuries. Beyers said the church was closed and locked at the time the fire broke out.​

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Jessop said Toronto Fire Services investigators will remain at the site for the next several days while the Ontario Office of the Fire Marshal and Toronto police investigators are expected to conduct a joint probe into the blaze. There weren’t any immediate indications of what caused the fire.​

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