Shortly
before 9:00 p.m. on June 9, 1958, a huge explosion rocked a lowrise
apartment building at 1600 Bathurst Street. Crews on the scene believed
that the explosion originated in a coal-fired boiler in the boiler room.The explosion tore a hole in the wall at the basement level. With the support gone, the south wall collapsed. When the floors lost their support, contents of the apartments were dumped into the alley.
Newspaper reports indicate that only the caretaker was killed in the blast, but one woman was taken to the hospital. There was no fire.
An account in the Toronto Star by Ronald Lowman described the scene as follows:
... generators hummed into action to supply power for the floodlights that were focused on the shattered wall, a siren wailed away into nothingness as it sped to a hospital, Hydro men swarmed up poles to cut off power, just in case, and a truckload of civil defence men and women in gray-green uniforms and steel hats arrived at the scene.A little knot of priests stood silent and watchful opposite 1600, while a tide of policemen and firemen ebbed and flowed around them. Close by stood two Salvation Army officers and a TV cameraman.
There were Good Samaritans by the score. Housewives from nearby apartments slipped in and out among the uniforms announcing that coffee was ready if anybody wanted some....
The picture below shows the section of the wall that collapsed after the explosion.