Bronson apartment fire leads to road closures

First responders at an apartment fire on Bronson Avenue on Wednesday afternoon. (Joe Tunney/CBC – image credit) Paramedics say one person has been injured during an apartment fire in Ottawa on Wednesday afternoon. Ottawa Fire spokesperson Nick DeFazio said the service got multiple calls at about 3:15 p.m., reporting smoke and flames from the third floor of an apartment building in the 200 block of Bronson Avenue.

Defazio said firefighters arrived on scene and declared it a second-alarm fire. “There was heavy black smoke coming out,” he said, adding that one person escaped the unit where the fire began. Defazio said the tenant was treated for lacerations and burns, and the Ottawa Paramedic Service told CBC News an adult was taken to hospital with burns, but remains in stable condition.

DeFazio said the fire spread to the apartment’s balcony, then “jumped up” to the fourth-floor balcony above. Firefighters contained the fire to the two units, DeFazio said, but the smoke spread to the rest of the building and it was evacuated. There were more than a dozen Ottawa fire vehicles on scene but no flames were visible from the street as of 4:30 p.m.

Duncan Rae was playing video games when he smelled smoke. When he looked out the window, he saw it several floors below. “It was scary,” Rae said, standing outside the building awaiting word on when residents would be allowed back inside. “You just go into this sort of zone of just wanting to get out.”

Police said Bronson is closed between Lisgar Street and Somerset, and Somerset is closed between Percy Street and Bronson.