‘It’s very frightening,’ neighbour says of fire
Man rescued from roof as blaze burns in home to international students
Selina Mills woke to the sound of screaming.
When she came outside of her Wilson Street home Thursday morning, the house next door had flames shooting from the top floors, she said.
Two young men were on the roof at 703 Wilson St., just west of Sherman Avenue South, while several others, including one in a towel, were screaming on the front lawn.
The young men are international students and don’t speak English well, Mills said, so it was difficult to communicate. But she and another man helped rescue one man near a secondstorey balcony at the front by motioning for him to dangle his legs, which they grabbed and guided him down.
The other young man was trapped on the roof at the back of the house where flames were bigger.
“We were screaming at him to climb down a tree when the fire department showed up with their ladder,” Mills said.
Hamilton firefighters found a “heavy volume of fire on the second floor,” said Deputy Chief Randy Moss.
Firefighters rescued one person on the roof and two were treated for smoke inhalation, he said.
By 11 a.m., the fire was out but crews remained on scene checking for hot spots.
“It’s very frightening,” Mills said, adding that she feared the fire might spread to her home.
She said she will not be allowed back into her home until some time Thursday.
One of the young men told her that one of the tenants was smoking and left a cigarette on the table.
She had a small fire accidentally set in her garbage on their shared driveway about a month ago also caused by a cigarette butt tossed by someone at the property, she alleged.
After that fire, she said she went next door and gave them an ashtray.
The extent of damage from this fire is not yet known.