Resident helps get tenants out of burning apartment building

Quick-thinking by a tenant ensured no one was hurt in an early-morning Villa Street blaze.

A resident of the eight- unit apartment that caught fire Tuesday morning said the man noticed the fire, believed to have started on a fire escape, and managed to wake everyone else in the building and usher them to safety.

"Everybody got out, yeah," said the man, who asked not to be identified. "It started on the outside."

Platoon chief Fred Choma of the Thunder Bay Fire and Rescue Services said the call came in around 6 a.m. and firefighters did what they could to save the three-storey building.

"The fire seemed to have gone up the escape to the roof and when crews arrived the fire was fully involved in the roof area," Choma said.

"The crews did an interior search. It was all clear of the persons, which was later confirmed by the owner, who was here. We have a situation now where the roof has been burnt completely off and we are more concerned about collapse at this time. So everyone is out of the building."

Choma said it was too early to determine the exact cause of the fire, or to say whether or not it was suspicious in nature.