‘Lucky she could escape’: Multiple fire code violations found after fire gutted St. Thomas apartment

It’s a rare case where a fire in her own unit may have saved her life.

While attending a fire on a third-floor apartment at 341 Talbot St. in St. Thomas, Ont., officials realized the fire escape was boarded up.

If the fire had been anywhere else, the resident of the unit may have had nowhere to go.

Firefighters got a 9-1-1 call just before 6 a.m. Tuesday morning.

“We just hear the alarm going off, and I'm panicking and I have to call 9-1-1,” said Jazzmin Boertien, who lives on the second floor.

Boertien and others quickly ran upstairs just as the woman in the unit was coming down.

She described it as “chaos” with heavy black smoke coming from the upstairs unit.

Fire Prevention officer Shannon Ashton took photos after fire gutted a third-floor apartment on Talbot Street in St. Thomas, Ont. on August 15, 2023. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

When they got outside, they could see flames shooting out the front window and a cat clinging to the window ledge. The cat was rescued and is reported to be safe. 

“Firefighters were able to knock the fire down pretty quickly and confine it to that one unit,” said Kim Destun, chief fire prevention officer for the St. Thomas Fire Department.

Destun said the woman who lives in the unit was brought to the emergency department at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital where she is being treated for smoke inhalation.

She is expected to be fine, and may not even require an overnight stay.

No other injuries were reported.

The fire code violations discovered by officials come as no surprise. They have been doing a blitz of Talbot Street apartments over the past few months, and have come to see many instances where escape routes are not up to code.

Fire officials said a woman was lucky to escape her apartment down the stairs on August 15, 2023, as her third-floor fire escape was boarded up. If the fire was on the second floor, she would have had no escape. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

“Talbot Street was basically built in the late 1800s, early 1900s,” said Destun. “It’s been renovated so many times that the permitting system in the building code has changed over the years. We're really finding a lot of spots that need attention, and brought up to today's standards. It's been a while since we've been in and it’s time we go up Talbot Street and get it in shape.”

Fire code violations could mean charges, but officials said they are trying to be proactive.

“We ultimately want compliance,” said Destun. “We don't want to go to court, and 90 per cent of the time when we explain it to the landlords, they are quick to do it.”

In an update from St. Thomas police, the cause of the blaze is believed to be a faulty air conditioner.

Boertein and her roommates meanwhile are just happy to hear that the woman is going to be okay, and that she was able to escape her unit.

“Thank god, she’s very lucky, very lucky,” she said.