A man was injured in a fire at four-plex in Chatham Wednesday night.
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Firefighters from Chatham-Kent Fire and Rescue Stations No. 1 and No. 2, along with Chatham-Kent police and Chatham-Kent EMS responded to a fire in the upper floor of a residence on Timmins Crescent around 8:30 pm
Assistant Chief Dan Parent said the fire is still under investigation while attending the scene Wednesday night.
“The fire started in a bedroom and we have not investigated the burn pattern, yet, but that will come,” Parent said.
A 58-year-old male occupant was “conscious and alert,” the assistant chief said.
“He recognized there was a fire and he tried to put it out with his bare hands and burned the fingertips of one of his hands,” Parent said.
He added the man may have also suffered a bit of smoke inhalation.
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Parent said the man was handed over to EMS, and was transported to hospital after being assessed.
A man whose family lives next door to the unit that caught fire became aware of the blaze when his daughter said she smelled smoke in her second-floor bedroom.
“I came outside and saw flames coming out of the room and automatically grabbed my kids and got out,” said the neighbor, who didn’t want to be named.
When asked his reaction to seeing the fire, he said, “My only concern was getting my kids out of the house.”
Another neighbor in the four-plex, who also didn’t want to be named, said his dog alerted the family to the fire.
“Our dog started to bark quite heavily and when we came outside (police) officers had just come to the door and said, ‘Hey, we would like everyone out.’”
He said, “There was a fair bit of smoke at first, but that was it.”
Kyle Mantle, who lives nearby, said, “We just saw the flames and then the fire trucks came up.”
Neighbor Kyla Bozh said, “Flames were out the whole window” on the second floor.
“I think the fire department handled it pretty good,” Mantle said. “They isolated the fire pretty quickly.”
The Chatham Daily News will update the story as more information becomes available.
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