Apartment building residents forced to flee $100,000 fire
Capt. William Barbour of London fire department holds an oxygen mask to the face of Capt. Jim Fitzgerald as ambulance attendants carry him from the scene of a fire Sunday – picture by Dick Wallace of The Free Press
Fire investigators were to continue today to probe the scene of a $100,000 fire which forced residents to flee 17 apartments in a south London building early Sunday.
Fire department Platoon Chief Len Everett said occupants of the three-storey building at 133 Elmwood Ave., salvaged what belongings they could after the fire, which broke out shortly before 1 a.m., was extinguished.
After a fire in the same building in November, 1972 the bodies of a mother and her three children were found in their attic apartment.
None of the tenants was injured in Sunday’s blaze, but four firefighters were treated at Victoria Hospital for heat exhaustion and released.
Fire department investigator Ron Preszcator said the fire started in the basement and spread quickly through the apartments and ultimately burst through the roof. His investigation today will focus on the electrical wiring.
The building had a fire escape and fire alarm system, Preszcator said. The residents, most young and single, escaped with the help of firefighters.
Patsy Wood, who lives in a ground-floor apartment near the front door with her sister, Marilyn, was watching television when she smelled smoke.
She opened the door, discovered the hall filled with smoke and called the fire department, she said. Another resident tripped the building alarm.
“By the time I got back into the room to phone, the whole apartment had filled with smoke,” Wood said. “We decided to get out as fast as we could and everyone else was doing the same by this time.”
The number of residents has not been determined. Preszcator said all units were occupied.
Fire officials gave a preliminary estimate of $100,000 damage to the building, operated by Fire Star Investments Ltd.
City police sealed off the building Sunday to all but residents returning to salvage belongings. Later, entry was denied because waterlogged staircases were deemed unsafe.
Firemen received the call at 12:42 a.m. By an apparent coincidence, firefighters had been called at 11:17 p.m. Saturday – 75 minutes earlier – to put out a fire in a Goodwill used clothing box at Elmwood and Wortley Road, a few doors to the east of the apartment fire.
