The Toronto Raptors couldn’t have asked for a better start in their matchup against a lowly Indiana Pacers team. With 41 points in the first quarter and seemingly every shot from 3-point range falling, Toronto was poised to pick up a vital win in the competitive Eastern Conference.
It appears as though the team took the idea of “catching fire” from 3-point range a bit too literally. The basketball gods appeared to intervene in Toronto’s bludgeoning of the Pacers. With Toronto up by 28 points in the first half, Scotiabank Arena started to turn ablaze.
A speaker directly behind one of the baskets caught on fire, sending a cloud of smoke down to the lower levels. While that bowl was evacuated, the blaze raged to the point where a larger evacuation was necessary for the safety of everyone at the game.
The fire eventually got so out of control that the game had to eventually be suspended. While Toronto Fire Services claimed that no one in attendance was immediately in danger of injury because of this, they also deemed the blaze a 2-alarm fire that required immediate removal.
They are evacuating the building "no threat to public safety" and game is suspended at the moment
— Doug Smith: Raptors (@SmithRaps) March 27, 2022
A speaker caught fire during the Toronto Raptors-Indiana Pacers game.
Broadcaster Matt Devlin is reporting that there is a “small electrical fire” above section 103 at Scotiabank. The arena staff turned the PA system off for some time after the fire broke out, as they were concerned about the speaker potentially falling to the ground.
The game has officially been suspended and it remains to be seen if play will resume. With the match suspended, this game could be continued tonight if local authorities deem that the building is safe to play in or postponed to a later date.
UPDATE: Devlin confirmed that the game is going to resume tonight.
The Game is going to resume shortly. #WeTheNorth
— Matt Devlin (@Matt__Devlin) March 27, 2022
The Raptors were playing one of their best games of the season before the fire got too serious to play through. OG Anunoby was dominant in the first quarter while Precious Achiuwa continued to show off his awesome 3-point skills by draining four straight shots to widen the gap.
The safety of the fans and the players on the court is of the utmost importance, so suspending the game until the fire was extinguished ended up being the only option the Raptors had in their playbook. Hopefully, no one is put at risk as a result of this truly improbable occurrence.