Ottawa police confirmed Tuesday that two people were dead after a fire engulfed a Kanata home late Monday night.
Firefighters found the victims “unresponsive” when they used ladders to get inside the home on Hansen Avenue through the second-storey windows because the flames had consumed the indoor staircase.
A neighbour called 911 at 10:11 p.m. to report that the attached garage was on fire with flames coming through the roof, Ottawa Fire Services said.
Firefighters from the Kanata North station declared a working fire at the home off Walden Drive while still on their way and rallied more resources to battle the blaze.
They found heavy smoke and flames which they began dousing with water from all sides, including using an aerial ladder from above.
Soon after they arrived, the roof of the garage began collapsing.
The fire was under control at 11:05 p.m.
No further details were being released about the victims, police said.
Firefighters have extinguished a fire in a Kanata home at 52 Hansen Avenue. Firefighters arrived to find smoke and flames coming through the roof of the structure, the garage roof and interior stairs collapsed during the fire. An Ottawa Fire Services Investigator is on location. pic.twitter.com/4j5Afwea68
— Ottawa Fire Services (@OttFire) December 15, 2020
In any fatal fire, a fire department investigator will work to determine the origin and cause alongside Ottawa police and the Office of the Fire Marshal.
Even before the two deaths in Kanata, Ottawa Fire Services had warned of a tragic spike in fire fatalities in 2020.
The death of a 42-year-old man in a fire in a highrise on Argyle Avenue last week was the the ninth fire death in 2020.
It was the most since 2001, Ottawa Fire Services said as it reinforced key fire safety measures.
The annual average is four.
“We are concerned about this high number that we have seen this year,” public information officer Carson Tharris said last week.
“We really wanted to get out the message to remind people to have a home fire safety plan and to test their smoke alarms because that is your first line of defence.”
