1 dead, 1 missing after house fire east of Ottawa: officials

UPDATE: Ontario Provincial Police said on Wednesday that the body of the missing person was found. Read the latest here.

One person is dead and another is missing after a house fire just outside the rural, eastern Ontario community of St-Isidore, first responders have confirmed.

A neighbour reported the fire in the two-storey home on County Road 9 around 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday, according to Tobias Hovey, fire chief of The Nation, Ont.

Investigators found one body in the burnt house and haven’t been able to account for the other person, Hovey and Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said.

The two individuals have not been identified.

Firefighters got the blaze under control by around 5 a.m. and the flames were fully extinguished by about 10 a.m., Hovey estimated.

Approximately 40 firefighters from three of five local stations helped out over the course of the morning, the fire chief said.

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Hovey said the house was likely built in the 1970s. He described the impact of the fire as “a full loss.”

“The building is burned from one side to the other,” he said.

St-Isidore is about 70 kilometres east of downtown Ottawa.

Officers and crime investigators from the Hawkesbury OPP detachment, the Ontario Fire Marshall and the Coroner’s Office are all helping with the investigation into the fire, according to a statement from OPP on Tuesday afternoon.

Provincial police urge anyone with information that could help investigators to “immediately” contact 1-888-310-1122.

Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS). A person who provides information could receive a cash reward of up to $2,000, according to OPP.