A woman is dead after a house fire in a semi-detached home in Tottenham overnight Tuesday.
New Tecumseth fire chief Dan Heydon said firefighters responded to multiple calls around 11:30 p.m. about a heavy structure fire at 53 Park Crescent.
Heydon said upon arrival two people exited the home and were transported to hospital with smoke inhalation and minor burns.
Ontario Provincial Police confirmed a woman was found dead inside the home. Friends have identified the woman as Krestine McCallum Collins.
WATCH: Fatal fire rips through home in Tottenham
Nancy McBride who lives in the neighbourhood but did not know the victims personally called the situation “devastating.”
“It’s just so upsetting, it’s a small community and a lot of people know each other in this town,” she said. “I can’t imagine for this family how awful this is.
“My heart goes out to the family and everyone who knows them.”
The fire fully engulfed the house and spread to the neighbouring home, 55 Park Cres., which shares a common wall with 53. The occupants of that home were able to escape unharmed.
WATCH:A man and a teenage boy made it out with only minor injuries, but a woman was found dead inside the home in Tottenham, Ont. Marianne Dimain reports.
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Due to the “heavy fire involvement” in 53, fire crews couldn’t enter the home and were forced to fight the flames from outside and from above using aerial ladders, Heydon said.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
Jeffy Tebby, a supervisor with Ontario’s Office of the Fire Marshal, said the home suffered extensive damage.
He said investigators will be trying to determine if there were working smoke alarms in the home and will be looking at potential causes for the fire.
“We will look at any of them and all of them,” he said.
Tebby also said heavy equipment will be used to pull down unsafe parts of the home.
—With files from The Canadian Press
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