Eat & Drink
Sassafraz on Fire, No Celebs Injured
(Video submitted of blogTO reader, Maurice)
As I type this, the legendary Yorkville bistro, Sassafraz, is burning down. As you can see in the photo above, Yorkville is engulfed in smoke and according to a report just in from theStar.com, the roof is just about ready to collapse.
Known best, not for their great cuisine (though it is!), but for the ultra-famous VIP characters who dine there when in town, this story is big news at this hour (yep, major media have already sent their helicopters perilously close).
4:30pm - LATEST UPDATE: Thanks Maurice for the incredible video! The roof collapsing is not the worst of it as now the problem is that the fire has spread into the walls of the old building. Firefighters continue to fight the blaze but with hidden fires spreading in hard-to-reach places, looks like very little is going to survive this one.
Our blogTO readers have been reporting back with some images. I'm continuing to post them here, so if you'd like to add your perspective, send your photos to our flickr pool. Alternatively, if you aren't on Flickr or have video, send it over to me at tanja [[ at ]] blogto.com.
From Gavatron's Flickr set:
From Karl Martin, aka, ethervizion:
Elsewhere on Flickr, from Robert A Segarra:
Also, Chromewaves:
Bitpicture on the scene:
Discussion
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(the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/blogto/";>blogTO Flickr pool at it's finest)
Everyone at my office is pretty excited about this - they were all big celebrity-whores I guess...
135 fire department staff are on the scene.
Maurice
It seems amazing that it is being contained this well and not spreading to any other buildings.
Glad to hear nobody was hurt, but it is sad to know that Sassafraz is gone (for now). I loved walking by it on my way to Remy's.
The washroom possibility lends to much speculation.. hm!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdLnpvrlFQo
Maurice
Now, I'm just waiting for Greek lightning to hit the Drake and I'm gravy.
Do they have insurance to cover all the refunds for the new year celebration.
The music makes it 100 times better.
LOL waiting for lightning to hit the Drake.
that's funny yo.
You can tell when posters work in a
restaurant when...
Like it or not, Sassafraz involved many employees and some owners who are probably a little shocked and distraught to see their livelihood go up in flames. If this was a video of Maple Leaf Gardens going up in flames (coupled with 'Man Overboard' by Blink 182), I'm sure there would be more people up in arms.
Save the pop punk for your skateboard videos, Maurice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-terSI6RraA
Aside from your annoyance comparing Sassafraz to Maple Leaf Gardens, my point still stands in that I think utilizing Blink 182 as the score for watching someone's livelihood become ruins is a little crass. Someone owned the place, ran it, and people worked there; I just think it was a bad decision.
On a positive note, watching BlogTO come together as a community to report a breaking story better than any local service was ridiculously impressive.
Great group of people. Pretty cool to mock others tragedy. Wonder if was their own home, if we ran some Killer if that would be as equally as entertaining. Not cool jackass, not cool. And for the information, that entire block has some architectural/historical significance to it. Do your homework before the comments.
Nice work and kudos out to the fire dudes for controlling and saving the structure for the most part. I hope the signed Don Johnson photo is still intact...hehe.