Four people are dead and two more are missing after an explosion leveled a strip-mall in Etobicoke Thursday.

The massive blast destroyed four storefronts and residential apartments in the two-storey mall on Bloor near Poplar Ave. Thursday afternoon, while tearing a hole in the side of a nearby home and shattering windows a block away.

Firefighters at the scene

Six people were feared to have been inside the building, including a mother and her daughter.

Police discovered the first body, believed to be a woman, early Friday morning as they sorted through the remains of the small mall on Bloor St. West, just west Kipling Ave.

Three other bodies, one identified as a feamle, have since been discovered in the rubble.

Location of the explosion

Nearly 100 firefighters and 35 fire trucks rushed to the scene of the explosion Thursday afternoon in an effort to control the blaze. Smoke from the blast could be seen several kilometres away for hours.

Officials said that they were investigating reports that a construction crews doing road work outside the building may have ruptured a gas main shortly before the explosion.

The impact of the explosion means there will almost certainly be a coroner's inquest and Ontario's chief coroner said the danger created by ruptured gas lines will be a central issue.

"If there's an inquest that would be one of the major items," Jim Cairns said. "So yes the investigators have good information about how this occurred and we will release that in due time."