Woman dies in early morning house fire

A woman is dead following an early Thursday morning fire in the city’s east end.

After arriving on scene at the McPherson Street address to find the air thickly coated in dense black smoke and flames enveloping the small white and blue homes, fire officials quickly brought the blaze under control.

“When we arrived on scene flames were shooting from the front window and out the doors. Fire crews slowly made their way in because of the amount of flames that were inside,” said Thunder Bay Fire Service platoon chief Val Fontaine.

“The whole building was going inside. After we got the fire under control and vented the roof, we finally got in to do a secondary search.”

That’s when the body of the deceased was discovered. Several dead cats were also found during the search.  

“On our primary search there was so much smoke we couldn’t see very well. We felt our way around and we didn’t find anybody. After the fire was knocked down we got in again for a secondary search and that’s when we discovered the deceased,” Lafontaine told CKPR Radio early Thursday morning.

Neither the identity nor the age of the victim, found under debris in the badly burned bungalow, was immediately released.

“I cannot identify the victim at this time,” Lafontaine said. “The police will release that information.”

Fire officials say they are investigating the cause of the fire at this time, with the scene being turned over to the office of the fire marshall.

“We have no indication at this time as to what caused the fire. We do know there were smoke detectors in the building because we installed them. But as to the cause, fire prevention and the Ontario Fire Marshall’s Office will attend and try to determine that,” Lafontaine said.

Police, who have surrounded the house in yellow police tape, and fire officials remain on scene on Thursday morning.