A three-alarm blaze gutted a Roots store on Queen West last night as the remnants of hurricane Sandy passed through Toronto. Although the fire is not being attributed to the storm, the more than 80 firefighters on the scene struggled at times to tame the flames on account of high winds. The blaze was, however, contained to the building or origin, sparing heritage properties on either side. No one was injured in the fire, so we feel a bit better about sharing these dramatic photos of the action.

The photos of the week collect each of the editor-selected photos of the day into one post for a contest to be decided by our readers. Sponsored by Posterjack, the photographer whose image receives the most votes will be awarded with a voucher code for a 24"x36" poster print of their work.

All the rules and fine-print can be found in the original announcement post on the blogTO Flickr page. One thing to add, however, is that the voting period ends at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, after which the winner will be contacted with the good news.

Photo by MrEllis in the blogTO Flickr pool

Photo by Neil Ta in the blogTO Flickr pool.

Photo by Paul Flynn in the blogTO Flickr pool.

Photo by tess roby walden in the blogTO Flickr pool.