Firefighters rescue man from burning apartment near Canning

Firefighters had to rescue a man from his burning apartment in Kings County early Friday morning.

Canning firefighters were called just before 2:30 a.m. to a large, two-storey home on Highway 358 in Norths Corner that had been converted into two apartments. When they arrived, they found smoke coming from an apartment that took up half of the first floor of the building.

The lone occupant had sought refuge in the bathroom as smoke filled the apartment. While the room had a window, it wasn’t large enough for him to crawl through to escape.

Firefighters made their way into the building and got the man out as thick, grey smoke billowed out the back door. Crews then concentrated on fighting the fire.

The man was assessed by paramedics at the scene but didn’t go to hospital.

The apartment included a piece built on to the end of the old home, and the fire started in that section of the unit, Canning fire chief Jeff Skaling said.

He said the fire was contained to that area, but did break through the roof. Because of the age and construction style of the building there were concerns that the fire had gone into the wall on the second storey, but no further fire spread was found.

The apartment suffered extensive smoke and fire damage.

Firefighters from several other local departments also responded to the scene, fighting the fire in temperatures that dipped to -14 C.

Most crews had left the scene by 5:30 a.m., but some remained for another three and a half hours while work started on determining what caused the fire.

The investigation is continuing.