Most of the 40 people made homeless by a west-end apartment fire Monday should be able to return by Tuesday night.
Ottawa fire officials said 90 per cent of the people forced out by the late-night fire at 1065 Ramsey Crescent will be able to return by the end of the day Tuesday.
“We did have to relocate everyone from that floor, which is between 30 to 40 people, for the night,” said Marc Messier.
“It’s just until they can get some of the smoke and mess cleared up on the tenth floor.”
The rest will be returning in the next few days.
Fire crews said they were called to the 15-storey building at 11 p.m. Monday to fight a garbage room fire on the tenth floor.
All those displaced were from that floor, although early estimates that all sixteen units were uninhabitable were later scaled down.
Two units suffered minor smoke damage, with fire damage limited to the hallway and garbage room.
“I can buy all the clothes that are (damaged by) smoke . . . I don't care, now it’s fine,” said Penny Walls.
“There were people stuck upstairs, it was pretty bad . . . very scary for the people who were stuck inside.”
“I saw from the elevator, I saw the roof . . . there was nothing left basically,” said Qais Mohammd, who spent the night in a Carling Avenue hotel courtesy of the Red Cross.
“My mom, she was stuck there for 45 minutes before the fire fighters got in, then when they got in they took her out.”
Ottawa paramedics treated three people and took two to hospital – a 32-year-old pregnant woman with abdominal pain after falling in the stairwell and a 60-year-old man who experienced chest pain after walking down stairs.
A third man with an injured ankle wasn’t taken to hospital.
Messier said they don’t know the exact cause of the fire yet.
With a report from CTV Ottawa’s Claudia Cautillo
