Thanks to a quick-thinking neighbour, nobody was hurt when a 6-plex caught fire in Lorette Tuesday afternoon.

Tache Fire Chief Allen Rau says they were called to the blaze on Pioneer’s Way at around 4:30.

"We had no direct address and so we responded toward Pioneer and as we were coming up on the scene we saw a tremendous amount of black smoke coming from behind Unit 9 Pioneer. We noticed that in the rear of the home, there were two decks that were on fire because they were adjoining decks."

A section of roof was removed to fight the fire that had spread into the attic of the buildingUnfortunately, Rau says the fire was pretty fierce and got into the eaves of the building and eventually the attic.

"In order for us to combat the fire, we had to cut some holes in the roof as well as pull down the ceiling in three units. Fire damage within the units was minimal it was just unfortunately a lot of water because of the type of fire that it was. They ended up with some smoke and some water damage."

Rau says nobody was hurt in the blaze, thanks to the efforts of a nearby neighbour.

"One gentleman tried to put the fire out with a garden hose but due to the severity and intensity, was unable to. He directed another individual to bang on all the doors to get people out. We had everybody out of there thanks to the neighbours and we rescued one cat out of one unit."

According to Rau, three of the units have little to no damage, two have sustained heavy smoke and water damage, and one just has waters damage.

"We stood down the firefighting operations around 9:45 P.M. however, I stayed with OFC (Office of the Fire Commissioner) to do the investigation and we had a fire watch all night."

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.