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By: Joe Fantauzzi, Staff Writer
At about 7:40 p.m. Tuesday, emergency crews were called to Hayhoe Mills at 201 Pine Grove Rd., near Islington Avenue and Pine Grove Road.
Employees said they smelled smoke and heard an explosion.
Smoke from the blaze forced the evacuation of residents in nearby buildings, including a retirement home and condominium.
As many as three people may have been at the building Tuesday evening, believed to have been doing maintenance.
Firefighters removed 20 chlorine cylinders from the building and then spent hours at the site ensuring the fire was out.
“The damage estimates are likely to be another week or so; we still haven’t got final answers from the insurance company,” Vaughan Fire Chief Greg Senay said Friday.
“The cause — it’s probably two or three weeks away. That will be left up to the Fire Marshal’s office to make a final determination; they’ve got to do lab tests. There hasn’t been anything unusual so far, as far as I know.”
The Hayhoe family announced the sale of the business, established in 1935, to Parrish & Heimbecker Ltd. (P&H) on Feb. 13, 2007.