Residents jump out of apartment building to escape fire in Port Hardy

CHEK

Several people fearing for their lives jumped from the 2nd floor of a Port Hardy Apartment late Sunday night.

The blaze sparked in the C-block of the Town Park Apartments around 11:15 pm.

Andrew Dawson’s wife was one of 7 people who jumped.

“I came around from the outside and saw them standing at my bedroom window getting ready to jump,” said Dawson.

Moments earlier, Dawson himself had gone into the hallway to see why the alarms were going off.

“When I was running down the hallway the walls were glowing orange as if it were on fire, but it was just glowing, that’s how bright the fire was,” he said.

And that’s when he found a burning mattress at the end of the hallway with the flames beginning to spread so he went banging on doors to wake up other tenants.

“And I immediately start yelling come on you guys this is areal fire, let’s get out of here, there’s no time to waste we have to do this now,” said Dawson.

Fire dispatchers received numerous 911 calls reporting the blaze.

“My deputy chief was on scene first and he definitely confirmed there were people jumping out the windows and heavy smoke,” said Port Hardy Fire Chief Brent Borg.

“While multiple people were transported to the hospital with injuries from falling, nobody was critically injured,” said RCMP.

The fire was under control shortly after 1 a.m. and crews had started ventilating the building, however, residents were unable to return to the structure overnight as the building sustained damage.

Emergency Support Services was deployed to assist with the displaced occupants.

The fire was extinguished by approximately 2:30 a.m. on Monday morning.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

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Dean StoltzDean Stoltz

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