The screeches of scraping metal cut through the drone of heavy machines as a backhoe dug into the Hayhoe Mills building yesterday.
Cleanup of the site followed a massive blaze at the Pine Grove Road and Islington Avenue area flour mill the evening before.
At about 7:40 p.m. Tuesday, emergency crews were called after employees smelled smoke and heard an explosion, according to York Regional Police.
As smoke billowed from the burning mill, residents were evacuated from nearby buildings, including the Pine Grove Lodge long-term care centre and retirement residence and a condominium.
As a breeze occasionally relieved the heat, two men, Robert De Nobile and Frank Hadobas, sat beside each other in plastic chairs, chatting just behind yellow police tape that restricted access to Pine Grove at Islington yesterday afternoon.
Both men identified themselves as residents of the Pine Grove condominiums, a grey, four-storey building ringed by balconies just a stone’s throw from the mill.
“When I went out to the patio, the fire was already too long gone,” Mr. De Nobile said, adding he was evacuated at about 10 p.m. Tuesday and spent the night at his daughter’s home.
Mr. Hadobas, however, said he toughed out the night in his car, adding smoke could be seen from as far away as Hwy. 400 and Rutherford Road.
The mill was quiet and clean day-to-day, according to Mr. De Nobile.
“The company runs it very good,” he said.
Grey-blue smoke continued to billow from the structure, a building with offices fronting large silos, yesterday.
As a backhoe moved pieces of twisted metal around, a Vaughan fire truck blasted the rubble with a steady stream of water.
Pausing a moment from observing his crews’ efforts yesterday, Vaughan Fire Chief Greg Senay said as many as 40 firefighters battled the blaze.
“Last night, the first engine company reported smoke and flames visible from the station,” Chief Senay said. “We had an explosion at that point and there were lots of 911 calls.
As firefighters arrived at the scene, they witnessed another explosion — a dust explosion.
“It got very large very fast,” Chief Senay said, adding flour is flammable and, in a contained room, it can explode.
“It will ignite and ignite very quickly,” Chief Senay said. “You’ve got to imagine what was in here — it’s 150 years of business.”
As many as three people may have been at the building Tuesday evening, believed to have been doing maintenance work.
Firefighters removed about 20 chlorine cylinders from the building, Chief Senay said.
“A real big-time danger there,” he said of the cylinders. “As they were moving them, we had one valve kind of crack and a couple of our people were exposed to it.”
The firefighters were treated and released, he added.
Firefighters drew a “line in the sand” where the building's offices meet the factory area and were able to halt the fire's approach, Chief Senay said, adding part of the building collapsed.
“Our biggest challenge was evacuation,” he said, adding York Region EMS and York Regional Police assisted. “We had 140 people here in the direct line of fire. It was a big undertaking to move that many. I can't say enough about the effort that went on.”
Firefighters from Markham and Richmond Hill helped Vaughan fire crews bring the inferno under control.
A specific damage estimate was not available at press time.
The Ontario Fire Marshal’s office is helping investigate the cause of the blaze, but it is not believed to be suspicious.
The Hayhoe family announced the sale of the business to Parrish & Heimbecker Ltd. (P&H) in February 2007, according to the company's website.