The fire destroyed 16 apartments and five businesses, including a bakery and a dry cleaner. (CBC)

Dozens of people lost their homes in a massive blaze that caused $2 million damage to two buildings in Gatineau's Hull district Monday night.

On Tuesday morning, a front-end loader knocked down part of the the charred remains of the brick building at 95 Eddy Street, which once contained 12 apartments, a bakery, a dry cleaner, and three other businesses.

The blaze broke out around 7 p.m. All the occupants of the building managed to escape in the minutes before the fire engulfed the top floor. When the fire was at its fiercest, orange flames lit up the sky and smoke and ash billowed so violently that it could be seen and smelled more than a kilometre away.

The flames soon spread to a neighbouring building at Vaudreuil Street. In all, 40 people were forced to flee.

A front-end loader brought down the charred remains of the building on Tuesday. (Chad Pawson/CBC)

No one was hurt, but none of the residents were insured and 35 people are now being helped by the Canadian Red Cross, the Gatineau fire department reported Tuesday morning.

At that time, the cause of the fire, which started between the second and third floors, was still under investigation.

Huiyeng Meng was among the residents who stood outside in the January cold, watching Monday night as about 50 firefighters fought the flames with hoses and cranes.

"I guess we lost everything," she said.

Meng said she had been in the kitchen of her second-floor apartment when sparks, flames and then smoke started bursting from the light fixture in the ceiling.

"I knew it was dangerous, so I called 911," she recalled.

Her husband yanked the fixture from the ceiling and tried to throw water on the fire. As the flames grew, the couple and their young son had no choice but to rush out of the building.

Their neighbour Roger Lafrenière managed to escape with his son Marc and with their black cat, which was tucked inside the front of his jacket.

Their pet was the only thing they managed to save from the fire, Lafrenière said.

"I left everything else in my place."

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