A two-alarm fire at a Dartmouth apartment building on Sunday morning has displaced the tenants of two units.
Suzanne DeVenne, who lives at the building in the 270-block of Windmill Road, told Global News she awoke to the sound of the fire alarms just before 8 a.m. and quickly grabbed her two dogs to get out.
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“I took them down and put them in my car and I turned around and there was just almost a mushroom cloud, massive black smoke billowing out of the back of the building across the hall from my apartment,” she said.
Halifax District Chief Pat Kline said the initial crew arrived and called a second alarm right away, meaning more resources were needed.
“They had the fire knocked out within minutes,” he said.
The fire began in a first-floor apartment and Kline said the tenant in that unit was able to get out himself.
“(The tenant) was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries to be checked over,” said Kline.
Canadian Red Cross volunteers were at the apartment building on Sunday to assist tenants.
Alexa MacLean/Global News
As well, a woman in the back of the building had to be rescued by firefighters from her balcony because medical issues made it difficult for her to evacuate the building.
“She was checked by EHS and was fine,” he said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, and the Canadian Red Cross is helping the tenants of two units — the one where the fire began, and the second-floor apartment above it — because damage is extensive.
