Blaze displaces 15 people in Hawkesbury, Ont.
Fifteen people have been displaced after a residential building caught fire early Monday morning in Hawkesbury, Ont.
Firefighters were called to the Regent Street building at around 3:30 a.m. Most of the residents were asleep when the fire broke out.
Marc Hoffman said he awoke to flames in his bedroom and ran outside to wake up his neighbours.
"I knocked — banged, rather — banged hard enough to wake everyone up to get them out of there," Hoffman said in French.
Brittany Wells was one of the neighbours woken up by Hoffman's warnings.
"I heard a big bang on my door, and I thought someone was breaking into my house, so I really didn't get up right away until I heard sirens outside," Wells said.
'It's devastating'
At the height of the blaze more than 40 firefighters from multiple local departments were on the scene.
Emergency responders had entered the building, Wells said, before she even had a chance to get out.
"I had enough time to put on my robe, and that was about it. Cops came in and helped me grab my son, and I left with ... my kid in my arms. And that was it."
Fire officials said the building is a total loss, as well as most of the residents' belongings.
"It's hard, you never really think it's going to happen to you, but when it does it's devastating. I don't know how else to phrase it. It's just devastating," Wells said.
Investigators are looking into the cause of the fire.
Hawkesbury is approximately 100 kilometres east of Ottawa.
