‘Jammed:’ Traffic at standstill on Gardiner Expressway after vehicle bursts into flames

This video shows a major car fire that brought traffic on the Toronto highway to a standstill during rush hour on Friday.

Two people are in hospital and all but one eastbound lane of the Gardiner Expressway are blocked approaching Jarvis Street after a collision involving a car bursting into flames on a downtown Toronto highway Friday morning.

According to reports, the vehicle was in the eastbound lanes of the Gardiner Expressway, near Bay Street, close to Scotiabank Arena.

Toronto Fire told CP24.com that crews responded to multiple reports of a collision in the area involving two to four vehicles shortly after 9:30 a.m. When they arrived, they found the smaller vehicle completely involved in flames.

Images from the scene showed a vehicle engulfed in flames, with heavy black smoke billowing from it.

The driver managed to escape the vehicle and firefighters quickly put out the blaze when they arrived, Toronto Fire said.

Two people were transported to hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, Toronto Paramedic Services said.

CP24 Traffic Specialist Meital Sperling said the collision and fire are creating “pretty big problems” for motorists in the area.

“We still have big problems on the eastbound side of the Gardiner,” Sperling said.

“Only the right lane getting by. This is all in the process of getting cleaned up. But in the meantime, it is still single file. Your best bet is to bail off well ahead of Jarvis. In fact, it is jammed all the way from Jameson approaching this point. So you can imagine, very unpleasant.”

It’s not yet known when the incident will fully clear.