KENORA — Two people died after an early morning house fire last week, the city's fire chief confirmed.
Kenora Fire Chief David Pratt said multiple 911 calls were received about a structural fire at 18th Avenue North at Ninth Street North at about 2:15 a.m on Friday.
"When we arrived, the fire was on the second floor. It's kind of like a two-story single family dwelling, but it's offset so it really has four levels. So the fire was already burning, on what I'll call the third level and into the roof,” he said. “We did hear that the two occupants were unaccounted for — their cars were in the driveway.”
Pratt said the fire was already too far involved and crews didn’t make entry into the structure.
“We ended up calling the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal because they have their mandate, should there be a fire fatality,” he said. “Between our department, the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal and the OPP, unfortunately, we discovered two persons deceased in the structure.”
He said the fire marshal’s office flew into Kenora late Friday to investigate.
“They did an investigation over the weekend, I have not heard the results,” Pratt said. “[They are] basically in charge of the scene once they arrive. The OPP did the forensics.”
Pratt said he believes the bodies have been sent to Toronto.
"They have a couple of hypotheses they're working on, but I'm not sure where they are in terms of whether they're able to prove one or the other," he said. "But it's their investigation and hopefully they'll provide us a report within a couple of weeks."
