New video has been released, showing the extensive damage at a townhouse complex in Mississauga following a massive fire over the weekend.

The footage was taken by firefighters from atop an aerial unit above the three-storey complex at 2869 Battleford Road as crews continued to piece through the debris on Monday.

It shows several units near the centre of the building which have been more or less reduced to charred rubble following the fire, as well as several others that appear to have been significantly damaged.

Most of the roof is also missing, leaving the units exposed to the elements.

Speaking with CP24 at the scene earlier on Monday, Mississauga Fire Chief Deryn Rizzi said that crews had a challenging time fighting the fire, as it had already “moved into the attic” at the time of their arrival on Sunday afternoon.

“Because of the wind yesterday, it was able to travel very quickly through that communal area. It's very difficult for firefighters to be fighting fires in those sorts of conditions because what they're doing is they're going into multiple units, they're trying to pull the ceiling down and they're basically chasing that fire and trying to extinguish it,” she said. “Eventually the fire did go through the roof area so then it was able to travel over the fire stops (in the attic). The fire stops obviously slowed the fire down but did not stop it.”

Rizzi said that a total of 36 units in the complex sustained fire, smoke and or water damage, including a dozen units on the third floor that were heavily damaged.

She said that so far a total of nine families, many of whom didn’t have insurance, are receiving help from the Canadian Red Cross with temporary accommodations, as well as other supports.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the cause and origin of the fire remains ongoing.

“Today we have the Ontario Fire Marshal (on site). We also have two or three of our own investigators going through, they're going to determine the origin and cause of the fire. This investigation will take us several days so we will be on site for several days,” Rizzi said. “Once the investigation has concluded, we will then turn the property over to the property development firm and then they'll be responsible for communicating next steps to the residents.”

Risk of asbestos in building

Mississauga Fire officials have said that “asbestos could be present in the textured coat of the ceiling” at the building, which has prompted an additional degree of precaution.

On Monday afternoon firefighters were seen entering the building in full HAZMAT suits.

Deputy Chief Rob Grimwood said that the firefighters will be using thermal imaging cameras to ensure that there are no areas where the fire may still be burning. Following that, he said that they will work on retrieving essential items for displaced residents.

However, due to the asbestos risk only hard items that can be easily decontaminated will be brought out. Soft items like clothing will not be retrieved.

“Unfortunately because of the asbestos only people with the proper personal protective equipment will be going in so that’s firefighters and fire investigation staff,” Grimwood said. “There is no chance that any of the residents will be able to go in because of this risk. But we are going to work as hard as we can for them to try to bring the essential items to them and then help them through this.”

There were reports on Sunday that the fire alarms inside the building were not going off, however the property management company has released a statement confirming that its fire and life systems were “operating properly.”

Grimwood said that given that the initial investigation suggests the fire started on the balcony and then spread upwards into the attic, it is possible that the fire detection systems malfunctioned due to fire damage.

“We detective systems are mounted on the ceiling so if the fire went from the balcony into the void space between the ceiling and the roof that could account for the alarms not activating,” he said.

One firefighter was injured as a result of the fire, though no injuries were reported amongst residents.