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Fire causes 'catastrophic' damage to downtown Kitchener condos

No one was hurt in a fire that ravaged the downtown Kitchener condominium complex Victoria Common at St. Leger and Louisa streets early Tuesday morning.

Although much of the fire was under control as of around 8 a.m., firefighters continued to douse hot spots in the area with water, focusing on the residential unit at 342 Louisa St., said Kevin Karley of the Kitchener Fire Service.

"Right now we've got damage to multiple ... units," Karley said.

Losani Homes is the development company building the townhouses at the Victoria Common site. They say the damage is "catastrophic."

"The fire affected three blocks of townhomes. It’s quite likely that two are completely destroyed," said William Lisk, general counsel for Losani Homes.

"There’s a fourth block of townhomes that’s probably affected by the water to put the fires out. It could be flooded," he said.

The cause of the fire is unknown at this time, but according to Karley, it started in a section of the condominium site that was under construction, then jumped into a section of completed townhouse units.

Laura Launslager lives next door to the residential unit with the most extensive damage.

"We got woken up around 5 this morning to the firefighters knocking on the door because the whole complex behind us was on fire," said Launslager.

"We looked out our back window to see flames on our window."

There are road closures in the area as multiple firetrucks remain on the scene.

The following streets are closed: St Leger Street, Louisa Street, Margaret Avenue and Wellington Street North.

Police and firefighters advise drivers to avoid the area.

Correction : An earlier version of this story stated that the fire damaged a townhouse unit at 342 St. Leger St. In fact, the damage was to a unit at 342 Louisa St.(Jul 22, 2014 9:50 AM)