Toronto Explosion evacuees hotline: 416-736-5185. Up to 12,000 residents were evacuated, according to Canada.com. If you cannot reach your friends or relatives who live within the evacuation zone, please call that number for more information.

Reported fatalities so far are limited to one, a firefighter who died in the course of duty. One employee of the propane company is missing and was reported last seen running towards one of the early explosions.

Amazing video of the Toronto Explosions fireball; this is HOLY SHIT material:

via heiko on Twitter

Longer video here:

Just about an hour ago photojunkie (who took these shots) twittered that huge explosions were rocking the Wilson Keele or Dufferin and Wilson area of Toronto, up to fifteen fiery explosions, some estimated up to 60 stories high. They are located near both the Shell refinery (suspect #1) and the airport (suspect #2 and please don’t let it be terrorism) and how stupid is it to have those two things close together, eh? The fire department is on the scene and photojunkie reports they have the fires apparently under control now, or at least significantly damped down.

And photojunkie‘s video:

And what does CBC Toronto want to talk about? The O-Fucking-Lympics and the (are they still on?) Pan Am Games. Yay team?

UPDATES:

Canadian Press is reporting it was the Sunrise Propane depot that blew up. Again I ask, how smart is that to have near the airport, not to mention near the airport AND the Shell refinery? Residents of the mixed industrial/residential area were evacuated:

“It was just a tremendous explosion and blew all the windows out of the house, just blew the house up, and I just managed to get out of there in time,” said Robert Helman, who lives across the street from the facility, which he identified as Sunrise Propane.

Helman, who was covered in cuts and bruises, said when he went outside, he saw a “huge fireball” followed by “multiple explosions.”

He said when he ran a “wave of a heat” followed him…

An emergency worker with Bombardier, which has a facility in the area, said he saw houses on fire. The worker, who did not want to be identified, also said he saw propane tanks dropping from the sky.

Sunrise Propane on Google Maps here. 54 Murray Road, North York, ON, M3K 1T2

(416) 736-4348 although I wouldn’t try calling today if I were you.

The company has a good reputation, or had up to this point anyway. Here is their corporate website, in which they say they operate 24 hours a day.

Sunrise Propane and it’s employees take great pride in being able to deliver very competitively priced propane and industrial gases with exceptional service to all customers. Satisfied customers are the foundation upon which Sunrise Propane was built.

Flickr stream for shots of the Toronto explosions here.

The National Post confirms reports of casualties, and further reports that the police and fire authorities have closed off the area for a full kilometer in diameter.

Toronto EMS duty officer David Viljak said emergency officials have received reports of “casualties” but can’t confirm them since the victims are “inside the hot zone” and behind the barricade.

“Actually . . . it was very large (the explosion), we are two miles away here, and we could feel it,” said the EMS officer.

It is believed that a series of explosions were set off at a propane gas depot.

Some media reports say some houses close to the centre of the activity were set ablaze.

Traffic on Wilson has been closed between Dufferin and Keele, and power to the area has been cut.

And some more information on Livejournal here.

Newest Updates:

Gawker reports that there are only two confirmed hospitalizations so far, but there are also two propane tanks in the railyards on fire and if those blow, it will be epic-er!

CBC reports a firefighter has been taken from the scene with no vital signs. Guess someone finally woke them up.

Thanks to Hez on Twitter for the tipoff.

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