Oakville Beaver

An early morning fire has claimed the life of a man.

The Oakville Fire Department responded to a 9-1-1 call that came in at 5:13 a.m. Tuesday morning reporting a house fire at Unit 48-223 Rebecca St.

The home was occupied by a male and female, according to Michael Harrison, public education/special projects officer with Oakville Fire Department.

The female escaped and notified a neighbour, who proceeded to call 9-1-1. Firefighters were notified by the caller that the male resident may still be in the house.

When firefighters arrived on scene at 5:17 a.m., they found a two-storey brick townhouse on fire with smoke coming out of several windows on the main floor.

They quickly removed one male occupant from the home.

“They got him out right away,” Harrison said.

The victim was transported to Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital by ambulance in serious condition.

He died in hospital as a result of his injuries.

The fire was quickly brought under control and extinguished by 5:29 a.m.

Damage is estimated to be about $50,000. It is not known if the fire was contained to the one unit.

Oakville Fire Department and Halton Regional Police Service remain on the fire scene.

The Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal has been notified and will be attending to conduct the fire investigation.

A smoke alarm was in the house, but was not in the vicinity of the start of the blaze, Harrison said.

“One smoke alarm did operate, but we don’t know where it was at that time,” he said. “It doesn’t look like it was in the area where the fire started.”

Although the cause of Tuesday’s blaze is not yet known, a number of recent fire fatalities have been directly linked to cooking.

“If people are cooking, they try to carry the pot from the stove to the sink and dropping it, or people leave their pots on the stove and go to sleep,” Harrison said. “That is a big push we have right now for public awareness is that people are careful when it comes to cooking fires.”

The Oakville Fire Department reminds residents to ensure that smoke alarms are properly located in the home, correctly installed and working at all times.

They also recommend residents have a fire safety escape plan for their home.

“It is so very important that the smoke alarms do work all of the time,” Harrison said. “There should be one on every level at least and they should all be working. People need to be diligent in testing them.”

The fire department also stressed the importance of residential sprinkler systems.

“If residential sprinklers were installed in this building, which is probably more than 10 years old, this may have had a totally different outcome,” he said.

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