Three people are dead after a rooming house fire erupted early Thursday in southwestern Ontario.
Chatham-Kent Fire and Emergency Services said crews were called to a three-storey house on Elgin Street in Wallaceburg, Ont., at around 2 a.m.
“It was a very large structure with lots of different rooms,” said Whitney Burk, Chatham-Kent Fire’s public educator. “(Firefighters) did end up transitioning to a defensive attack once it was deemed that the structure was not safe to be entered anymore.”
Before moving to that defensive attack, a man and a woman were pulled from the house by firefighters but both were later pronounced dead. The man died at the scene, while the woman later succumbed to her injuries at the hospital, Burk said.
Chatham-Kent Fire said that one person was unaccounted for and that police were trying to determine if that person was even home at the time of the blaze.
On Thursday afternoon, officials announced that the body of a third person had been found in the basement of the house.
The cause of the fatal fire is still under investigation. Burk said part of that investigation will determine whether the house had working smoke detectors in all the right places.
The Office of the Fire Marshal has also been dispatched to the scene.
Chatham-Kent Victim Services will be at the James Street Mission until 5 p.m. Thursday to assess anyone impacted by the fire.
Burke also said supports are also available for firefighters.
“We did not have a fatal fire in 2021 and this fire is our first fatal of 2022,” she said. “It’s difficult for those first responders who were first on scene dealing with a tragedy like this.”