3 houses damaged, firefighter injured in Orleans fire | CBC News

A house fire in Orleans, Ont., severely damaged three homes on a residential street early on Tuesday morning. While the occupants escaped unharmed, one firefighter suffered second-degree burns, first responders at the scene said.

Emergency services responded to a call around 5.45 a.m. to a street in Chapel Hill South, in Ottawa’s east end. 

Firefighters were on the scene within minutes, according to Nick DeFazio, Public Information Officer for the Ottawa Fire Services.

“When they arrived, two single family homes were engulfed in flames,” he told told Radio-Canada at the scene.

With flames erupting through the roofs of the two houses, multiple surrounding homes were at risk of catching fire, he said.

As firefighters battled to contain the fire in the two burning homes, they also worked to prevent the blaze from spreading. 

“They protected the whole back street, they protected one of the houses on the side, and then a third house had already caught a bit and they extinguished that before it engulfed the entire house,” DeFazio said. 

Eight people were in the three houses at the time the fire broke out in the middle house, and all escaped without injury, though a firefighter received second-degree burns to the hand, he said.

The three houses are all now uninhabitable, he said.

By 7.30 a.m. firefighters had brought the fire under control but continued to spray water on the smouldering homes.

Police asked people to avoid the area. “Nature Trail Crescent at Pagé Road is closed due to a working fire,” OPS wrote on X.