The wall of a building being demolished on a busy thoroughfare in Toronto's west end collapsed Friday morning.
No one was injured as the steel and brick wall fell into some scaffolding and boarding, sending it crashing onto the sidewalk and a nearby flatbed construction truck.
The brick building is on Queen St. W., just west of Ossington Ave. It was being cleared to be replaced by a two-storey complex with shops on the first floor and apartments on the second.
Ernesto Jordan, who owns a print shop next door, said he's become so used to hearing the crashing noise of the demolition, that he didn't think anything of it at first.
"I saw the whole thing fall, it was slow," Mr. Jordan said. "I ran outside to see if anyone was hurt. It's a really busy street."
The curb lane of Queen St. was blocked by the truck and the collapsed scaffolding, but traffic and streetcars were getting through in the centre lanes.
A backhoe helping to clear the site sat idle atop a pile of bricks as building inspectors interviewed construction workers and checked out nearby buildings. Neither the workers nor the inspectors would comment on the collapse, but confirmed a stop-work order would be issued.
It was not immediately clear why the mishap happened, but the city said there was no threat to nearby buildings.
"There are no findings on what caused the collapse, that's still under investigation," said Mario Angelucci, a regional director with the city's building division.
He said investigators are waiting for information from the building's engineers to determine how the wall fell and how the company will proceed with the work.
"They have to make sure the site is secured," Mr. Angelucci said. "The work is stopped until we receive reports from the engineers."
It's not known exactly when the mess will be cleaned up.
The collapse was the second in six weeks. In mid-April, a pile of bricks fell out of the wall of a building on Gould St., near Ryerson University.
That building, which houses two restaurants, remains closed with a gaping hole in the wall of the second floor.