What happened
Ottawa Fire Services received a 911 call at 5:24 p.m. on September 20 reporting a fire at a two-and-a-half storey multi-unit residential building in the 100 block of Lockhart Avenue. The caller told dispatchers a person was trapped in an apartment with heavy smoke on the top floor.
When crews arrived, they found a resident who had already managed to get out of the fire unit. That resident told firefighters another person remained inside.
The rescue
Crews located the man still inside the apartment with no vital signs. He was quickly brought outside, where firefighters started CPR and other life-saving measures on the spot. Firefighters successfully restored the patient's pulse and breathing before he was taken to hospital in life-threatening condition due to smoke inhalation.
The fire itself was contained to the kitchen and was declared under control at 5:49 p.m., roughly 25 minutes after the initial call. Residents from other apartments in the building were not displaced by the fire.
The Ottawa angle
The fire is a reminder of how fast Ottawa Fire Services crews have to move once a call like this comes in: from the 911 call to the fire being under control took less than half an hour, and within that window crews also had to search a smoke-filled unit, locate a man with no vital signs, and begin CPR before he could be moved to hospital. For residents of Lockhart Avenue and the surrounding Ottawa neighbourhood, the fact that other units in the building weren't displaced will come as some relief, even as the man pulled from the top-floor unit remains in life-threatening condition.
What's not yet known
The cause of the kitchen fire has not been released, and neither has an update on the man's condition since he was taken to hospital. Ottawa Fire Services has not said whether smoke alarms were present or working in the unit, or whether the man found inside was the same person the original 911 caller had described as trapped. None of those details have been independently confirmed yet.
What is confirmed is the outcome that matters most in a fire like this: a crew that got to a man with no vital signs, got him outside, and got his pulse and breathing back before paramedics could take over. Ottawa Fire Services crews carry out this kind of on-scene resuscitation regularly, but it doesn't always end with a pulse restored on site.
Ottown will update this story if Ottawa Fire Services or Ottawa Paramedic Service release further details on the man's condition or the cause of the fire.
Sources: Yahoo News Canada (Ottawa Citizen wire)
