A 19-year-old male University of Windsor student has been killed after an early morning house fire at 227 Rankin Ave. between University Ave. and Riverside Dr. in Windsor.
Fire crews arrived about 4:30am and say smoke and flames were visible from all sides of the building.
A team of investigators including the Ontario Fire Marshall, Windsor Police Detectives and Windsor Fire and Rescue are on the scene of a fatal fire in west Windsor.
A neighbour who lives next door, was alerted to the blaze as soon as fire crews arrived.
Sundeep Shukla says he was worried for the people in the fire house because he knew them and hoped everybody got out.
Shukla says there was a mix of different students in the house: "I know there were 2 or 3 black people, my assumption was that they were from Africa. There was a white student who was there and there was a south Asian"
Acting District Chief, Winton Marchand says "the fire got through the whole structure. It got into the walls, it got into the attic. There was a lot of time spent overhaul, that means tearing down, looking for hot spots, extinguishing them. Just basically chasing little embers and fires through-out the whole structure. It's basically gutted."
"It was a very difficult and intense fire" says Marchand. "Crews attempted getting through the second floor through the building but they couldn't. They tried laddering it to get to the second floor, and at that time suppression was made on the first floor, and they made access to the second floor where they found the victim and he was taken to the hospital."
A total of five people have been sent to hospital with smoke inhalation. They were treated and released.
Crédit photo: Burned front porch of 227 Rankin Av (photo by AM800's Peter Langille)
The Ontario Fire Marshal has been contacted and investigators are arriving on the scene.
No word on the cause or a potential damage estimate at this time.