SEE VIDEO http://www.ottawasun.com/2011/06/02/3alarm-house-fire-in-centretown
At least two families are displaced — and a dog was rescued, tied to a tree waiting for its owner — after fire broke out just after noon at a two-storey triplex in Centretown Thursday.
“My wife was on the computer and I was getting ready to go out, and we smelled something and she asked me to check it out,” said resident Karl Nelson, who just moved in one month ago.
Nelson and another neighbour saw smoke, called 911, and threw a computer monitor at the window.
The blaze began at 323 Arthur Lane South and spread into the wall at adjoining 325 Arthur.
“It was in the basement area of the centre unit and we have an investigator coming now to find the probable cause,” Ottawa Fire Services platoon chief Larry King said at the scene.
Nelson said a couple and their 10-year-old daughter live in the middle house.
“Usually, the wife is home. I don’t think they found anybody,” Nelson said, sitting on the porch of a neighbour’s house.
Nelson’s wife and three kids were taking refuge from the cool breeze inside another house nearby.
He was waiting to see when he could enter his home and grab his ID.
Roughly 30 firefighters were on hand.
No injuries were reported.
Damage is estimated at $250,000.
Kelly Roche - Storyteller 