Staff help rescue residents as fire destroys Kingston sleeping cabin

Chrystal Wilson was on shift, keeping an eye on the cluster of sleeping cabins at the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour in Kingston, Ont., early Tuesday morning, when one of them suddenly caught fire.

By the time the flames were brought under control, one of the shelters that house vulnerable residents had been reduced to a blackened pile of possessions.

"They lost 100 per cent of their belongings," Wilson said on Wednesday.

But she said if it hadn't been for those on site, more than just cabins might have been lost that night.

"We had staff and some residents step up and save lives."

Wilson is the executive director of Our Livable Solutions, the non-profit that runs the 15 cabins set up to give people experiencing homelessness a place to stay.

The fire damaged two of the other small buildings, including one that had a wall burnt to the ground.

Firefighters were called to the site around 2 a.m. and arrived to find one of the cabins engulfed in flames, according to Ted Posadowski, chief fire prevention officer for Kingston Fire & Rescue.

Posadowski said there were some minor injuries, but no one was taken to hospital. Damage is estimated around $60,000.

Fire training was a day before fire

Wilson said staff had gone through fire training Monday, so the information was fresh as they worked quickly to wake up the people inside the cabins and make sure they made it out safely.

"It could have been a lot worse," she said. "We're very lucky that nobody was hurt."

"We are thankful that there [is] staff there 24/7," Posadowski said. "They did smell smoke … they did grab fire extinguishers and tried to extinguish the fire."

Kingston Police and the Electrical Safety Authority are helping to investigate what sparked the flames, but a cause for the fire has yet to be determined, according to Posadowski.

The sleeping cabins were part of a pilot project, but a spokesperson for the City of Kingston told CBC in a statement it's working on a permanent location for them in the new year and awaiting direction from council.

Officials are working with Our Livable Solutions to ensure everyone affected by the fire is supported and provided with accommodation. The city plans to "replace the damaged units as soon as possible," the statement added.

Working to replace what was lost

Wilson said the cabins have gone through fire resistance assessments, noting she once took a blowtorch to the material herself to test it.

The executive director declined to say more about what may have caused the fire, citing the ongoing police and fire investigation.

In the meantime, staff are supporting the person displaced by the fire.

"We were able to move them into a cabin that didn't have a resident in it," said Wilson. "We're working with them to replace the items that were lost."