Witness rescues woman from fatal house fire in Kanata
One person is dead after an early morning fire at a Kanata home, while the heroic actions of a passerby rescued a woman from the burning structure.
The Ottawa Police Arson Unit and the Office of the Fire Marshal are investigating the fire at a one-storey bungalow in the 200 block of Castlefrank Road, just off Glamorgan Drive, at approximately 5:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Travis Brown was driving to the gym from his Stittsville home early Tuesday morning when he saw smoke coming from the home and called 911.
"I banged on the door and tried to ring the door bell. I could hear the fire alarm going off," Brown tells CTV News Ottawa.
As he was on the phone with a 911 operator to report the fire, he saw an elderly woman in a bedroom.
"I yelled at her to say, 'your house is on fire," Brown said.
He removed the window and urged her to come to the window, but she said she had fallen and couldn't get up. The 29-year-old climbed into the home to rescue the woman.
"I hopped in and felt around for her, listened for her, grabbed her and pulled her to the window, pulled myself out and then lifted her out," Brown said, adding a bystander rushed over to help.
Ottawa Paramedics say a woman in her 90s was transported to hospital in stable condition with smoke inhalation.
Ottawa fire says firefighters conducting a search of the home after the fire had been brought under control located an individual inside the home. That person was pronounced dead at the scene.
The burned interior of a bungalow can be seen through the window of a home on Castlefrank Road in Kanata where one woman was heroically rescued, but sadly a person was found deceased on Tuesday, March 28, 2023. (Leah Larocque/CTV News Ottawa)
No other information has been released about the victim.
Ottawa fire says Brown reported "big flames and smoke from the house" during the 911 call.
A neighbour reported hearing a "weird noise" overnight.
"My doorbell camera showed a bright light, but it was black and white," Christine Hill told CTV News Ottawa.
"When I went out, all I saw was flames and smoke. I thought it was a tree on fire because it was so high."
Neighbours say the residents living in the home were kind.
"He was always out helping people with their driveways, snowplowed for the lady across the driveway all the time, always helping," Kenneth Logan said.
Ottawa's fire chief expressed condolences to the family of the victim.
"The Ottawa Fire Services extends its sincere condolences to the family and friends of the occupant who succumbed to their injuries at this morning's fire on Castlefrank Road," Chief Paul Hutt said on Twitter. "Our sympathies are with them as they navigate this profound loss."
Brown says he did everything he could to help during the fire.
"Obviously happy to help," Brown said, adding he was assessed by paramedics at the scene. "You just wish you could have done more."
The Ottawa Police Arson Unit and the Office of the Fire Marshal are investigating a fatal fire on Castlefrank Road in Kanata.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
For the first time in report's history, Canada's air quality worse than U.S.
Thanks to wildfires, air quality in Canada is now worse than in the U.S., according to the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report.
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
DEVELOPING Canada's annual inflation rate ticked down to 2.8 per cent in February, defying expectations
Statistics Canada says the annual inflation rate edged down to 2.8 per cent in February.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.
Toronto family doctor who called patient's body 'perfect' suspended for 3 months: tribunal
A family doctor in Toronto has been suspended for three months after a disciplinary tribunal found that he failed to follow proper protocols while examining a patient's breasts and made inappropriate comments about her body.