Man killed in Hintonburg apartment fire
Another man seriously burned in separate fire on Carling Avenue early Sunday morning
Residents of a Hintonburg apartment building are shaken after one of their neighbours was killed in an overnight fire.
Trevor Neawasige, 27, heard the fire alarm go off just after 1 a.m. Sunday but didn't realize the source of the problem was just down the hall from his eighth-floor apartment at 1161 Wellington St. W., near Parkdale Avenue.
"I checked in the hallway and there was smoke everywhere — I couldn't see," he said, adding that he grabbed his keys and put on some shoes but didn't risk changing out of his shorts before heading out into the hallway.
"I just tried to find the doorway. It was pretty tough to find because there was so much smoke," he said. "I just stayed low and found the stairway."
Firefighters pulled his neighbour, a man in his 40s, from a unit on the eighth floor, the fire service said.
The man was treated for serious burns and smoke inhalation was and taken to hospital in cardiac arrest, paramedics said. He died of his injuries, police said.
Daniel Bueno, 35, said smoke filtered up two floors into his 10th-floor apartment. He opened the window to ventilate, then noticed smoke billowing up from below. That's when he grabbed his dog and cat and made it outside to safety. He said he was allowed back in around 2:30 a.m.
Residents of a Wellington Street West apartment building are shaken after their neighbour died in a fire <a href="https://t.co/MCvlXmzN9l">https://t.co/MCvlXmzN9l</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ottnews?src=hash">#ottnews</a> <a href="https://t.co/iXeJiHYjYl">pic.twitter.com/iXeJiHYjYl</a>
—@CBCOttawaCoun. Jeff Leiper, whose Kitchissippi ward includes Hintonburg, said Sunday morning that a store at the base of the building was closed due to glass damage.
"It is shocking. It is tough to deal with," he said.
The fire is not considered suspicious but the Ottawa police arson unit is involved to assist the coroner's office. The cause of the fire was not released.
Man burned in separate fire
A 30-year-old man was also burned in a fire on Carling Avenue near Moodie Drive.
Firefighters said the man called from 3433 Carling Ave. at 2:15 a.m. Sunday to report he was trapped inside his burning house.
Dispatchers helped the man get out of the home and he was outside when crews arrived, firefighters said.
The man suffered burns to 20 per cent of his body and was taken to the Ottawa Hospital's burn unit, paramedics said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and there's no estimate yet of how much damage it caused.