Six families made homeless by a six-alarm fire at a Toronto high rise in September moved back home Tuesday – the first of 144 households who will be returning to 200 Wellesley St. E. in the coming weeks, a spokeswoman for Toronto Community Housing said.
The top half of the building, including the 24th floor where the fire began, is still being repaired after sustaining significant smoke and water damage. Residents are not expected to return to that floor until the new year.
Still, for about 300 residents this week will mark the end of nearly two months in hotels or temporary social housing across the city, which for many began with a few nights sheltering in the crowded Wellesley Community Centre.
As well as collecting donations to help tenants replace what they lost in the fire Toronto Community Housing has set up a compensation program for tenants to claim between $3,300 and $5,300 per unit, plus $450 per occupant. Tenants can also claim compensation for emotional upset, loss of comfort and convenience, and spoiled food.
Rent was suspended for November and December and tenants could also claim between $150-$300 of clothing allowance. Any tenant who chose to stay with friends or family rather than a hotel received compensation of $10 a day.
The building was Canada's largest social housing project and the blaze forced 1,700 to be evacuated.
Fire fighters said that hoarding helped the fire spread as many of the apartments were cluttered. Investigators found the unit where the blaze began was packed with legal papers from the tenant's decades-old real estate dispute.
The 1960s-era high-rise was up to standards for the time it was built, but because provincial fire codes are not retroactive was exempt from a 2010 law saying buildings more than three storeys need to have sprinklers on each floor.