A father was in an induced coma in a Montreal hospital on Monday, a day after he was severely burned in a cabin fire and then boated across a lake in a desperate attempt to save his family.

The ruins of a cabin smoulder after a fatal fire on Sunday morning at a nature reserve in northern Quebec.
(CBC)

Karl Hansen, 49, was the only person to escape the Sunday morning fire at the Kiskissink nature reserve in northern Quebec, about 170 kilometres north of Trois-Rivières.

It ultimately killed his 26-year-old son, 19-year-old daughter, 13-year-old stepdaughter, as well as his daughter's boyfriend, 22, and a family friend in his 50s.

Quebec provincial police confirmed the five had died and said autopsies are being conducted.

Hansen, who is from Montreal, awoke early Sunday morning to find his fishing cabin filled with fire and glowing orange, the CBC's Nancy Wood reported from Montreal on Monday.

Hansen managed to find his 26-year-old son and tried unsuccessfully to get him out a window. Hansen ended up leaping out the window alone, head first.

Police said Hansen, who had burns across his body and hands, drove his rubber dinghy boat 10 minutes across Lescarbot Lake, since there was no road access or telephone access to the cabin.

From there, neighbours then drove him about 50 kilometres to the main lodge of the Kiskissink reserve, where they could call for help.

Diane Morin, who works for the reserve, recalled how Hansen pulled up to her office at about 5 a.m. ET and started honking frantically.

"The man said, 'The fire had already started and all my children, everybody, burned at the chalet,'" she told Radio-Canada, the French arm of the CBC. "It's a nightmare, it's terrible."

By the time fire crews were able to get to the burning cabin, it was destroyed and the family inside was dead.

Hansen was airlifted to a Montreal hospital, where he is being treated in the burn unit.

Police investigate cause 

On Monday, emergency workers picked through the rubble of the cabin to determine the cause of the fire. A faulty heating unit is a possibility.

"We will look into this, if we can find something regarding a stove or a furnace that had problems," said Sgt. Michel Brunet. "But it could be something else."

Pierre Lefebvre, president of Kiskissink, said the fire has devastated the community of people who use the reserve, which is owned by the Quebec government, spans about 1,000 kilometres and contains more than 300 lakes.

Reserve users are close, like family, Lefebvre said.

"I feel like I just came to lose five of my children," he said.

With files from the Canadian Press