Dozens of Mount Pleasant residents are watching in stunned silence as firefighters continue to deal with a blaze that burned three restaurants to the ground Thursday morning.
Deputy fire chief Tom McEwan said crews arrived at the scene at Main Street and Broadway to find several buildings completely engulfed in flames.
Residents of nearby apartments were immediately evacuated.
"A police guy knocked on the door and told us everyone had to get out," said Daniel Vaillamcourt, whose four-storey apartment, on Broadway and 10th, narrowly avoided the flames.
"We came outside and saw a huge fire, big smoke and like seven firetrucks."
Vaillamcourt said this is the third major fire he's seen in the neighbourhood since he moved here in 1985.
McEwan said it took 40 firefighters to knock down the fire by 6 a.m., but spot fires continue to burn under the rubble of the now-gutted buildings.
An excavator is expected to level the buildings this morning so firefighters can continue their investigation.
The cause of the fire is not known but it likely started at a Japanese restaurant near the north of the block.
All buses along Main and Broadway are being rerouted.
