'I woke up and my whole house was lit up': Neighbour helps rescue family from Windsor house fire
A Windsor resident is being hailed a hero after alerting a young family with a baby that their house was on fire early Saturday morning.
Kamar Francis said he abruptly woke up just after 2 a.m. to see flames across the street on Grove Avenue near Church Street, and ran outside to alert neighbours.
“I woke up and my whole house was lit up as if I had all my lights on,” Francis explained. “I came out and I realized the garage was on fire. So I flew out of the house wearing next to nothing. I had to get a couple that lives there with a young baby.”
According to Francis, the family managed to get out of their home without injury before he ran to an adjacent property to alert another elderly neighbour.
“The fire was escalating quite quickly, like when I just came at the house it was only the shed. Within, I would say three to four minutes, the entire side of that gentleman's house was in flames,” he explained.
Fire crews responded to an overnight house fire in the 400 block of Church Street in Windsor, Ont. on Saturday, June 10, 2023. (Source: OnLocation/Twitter)
“I had to get whatever neighbour I could that was close by out and we all kind of just rallied together trying to get everyone out safely and it was just extremely unfortunate.”
Windsor fire officials confirm there were no injuries as a result of the blaze.
“I was one of the first ones out here and I think if anybody else was out here they would have done the same thing. It was a moment where you're in shock but you just react,” Francis told CTV News.
Tannis Bence lives nearby and is one of those hailing Francis a hero.
“It’s a lot first thing in the morning and at any time of the day a fire is a lot to handle. I think you go into fight or flight and so again, it’s just so great that we have a strong supportive neighbourhood here that we all care and love each other here.“
“It’s very unfortunate what happened and that other people’s properties got damaged in the process of this,” Bence told CTV News.
Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire and an investigator attended the scene.
“Unfortunately the garage fire spread to the rear of the house on Grove causing extensive damage on the rear of the house and then it got into the attic,” Windsor Fire prevention officer Mike Coste said.
“With the structure on Church, the structure on Grove and with the fully involved garage fire, and the garage is completely gone, that’s where we have damage amount of over $350,000 roughly.”
The cause of the fire is undetermined.
“It’s undetermined because we’re not able to pinpoint 100 per cent,” Coste explained. “We may have an idea of how it starts, but unless we can 100 per cent say what it is, we have to list it as undetermined.”
“The garage was completely consumed, so there was very little evidence left. There was no roof left, there was no frame left. There’s no structure left no walls left so the evidence if there was any evidence in there would be consumed in the fire.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.