At least a hundred residents and their pets evacuated from a Bronte Village high-rise after a fire broke out in a ninth-floor bedroom Monday afternoon.
No one was injured in the fire, which was contained to the unit. The 18-storey building is located on the 2200 block of Marine Drive.
"The resident did a good job shutting the door behind her," said Dave Devier, acting platoon chief for the Oakville Fire Department. "That kept a lot of heat and smoke contained."
As residents spilled out onto the sidewalk and around the condo yard, smoke could be seen pouring out of the bedroom window as broken glass fell to the walkway below.
Eight trucks and about 30 staff responded to the call which happened at about 3:30 p.m. March 15. Two Oakville Transit buses were made available for evacuated residents to warm up. The fire was quickly extinguished and residents were allowed to return to the building after about two hours.
The building is home to several elderly people with mobility issues who could be seen standing on their balconies as the building was evacuated. "A lot of times in an apartment people can shelter in place if you have mobility issues," Devier says. "You’re probably safer in your unit than walking around in the smoke, and if you have voice communications, which I believe this building had, sometimes there’s a PA announcement of what to do and what not to do. When you open your suite door, you have to look at the conditions and see if it’s safe to get out."
If there's any question of whether you can safely get out, it's best to stay put.
"People will call 911 saying, 'I am concerned, I can smell smoke,' and we can do a wellness check." He says the fire department does have the equipment and capacity to assist those with mobility issues if they aren't able to tackle the stairs.
Less than 24 hours prior to the apartment fire, firefighters responded to another fire in the neighbourhood at Riverview Park in the marsh at the mouth of Bronte Creek. Devier says the fire appears to have started on the island and moved from there. The wildfire took crews about four hours to contain.