Residents forced to flee fire on Ahbau Street

Fire forced the residents of a four-unit building from their homes on Ahbau Street Monday night.

Ferguson Milton, 39, was on his computer in his basement suite shortly after 9 p.m. when knocking on his door and cries of "fire" alerted him to the flames in an adjacent upstairs unit of the duplex.

"It was pretty scary," said Milton, who, with his mother Jeannie Wesley, 57, escaped the suite.

Milton said three of the four units on the 600-block of Ahbau Street may have had people at home at the time of the fire. A couple lived in the other basement suite of the upstairs-downstairs residence, he said, and a single father with three or four children lived in one of the top floor homes.

A fire official later confirmed the father's girlfriend was also in the residence during the incident.

The fire centred on the family's unit. Initial reports suggested there were occupants trapped in the structure.

However Deputy Fire Chief John Iverson said there were no indications that crews were impeded bringing anyone to safety.

"There was a quick knockdown of the fire," said Iverson as firefighters mopped up at the scene.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, he added.