One man was left bloodied from flying glass shards as a massive fire tore through several businesses in Ottawa.
The fire broke out in the Glebe neighbourhood, just south of downtown, after 11 p.m. Thursday night.
Michael Valenti was out for a cigarette when the building next to him erupted into a shower of broken glass that cut his face and leg.
“I saw glass on the ground and then people started rushing over to me, saying, ‘Are you OK? Are you OK?’” Valenti said.
He thought he hadn’t been injured at first, and said it felt like someone had maybe thrown something at him.
“And then I looked at my hands, and I’d dripped blood on my hands,” he said. “I said OK, maybe I’m not fine.”
The three-alarm blaze consumed several businesses, including a hair salon, a coffee shop and a Pizza Hut. The damages likely total in the millions.
“This is in the heart of the area and it affects everybody,” said Andrew Peck, the president of the Glebe Business Improvement Area. “It’s just very sad. It's a very sad day.”
Ottawa Fire Services spokesperson Bob Rainboth said the fire took more than five hours to extinguish.
“There was an explosion that woke many residents up in the neighborhood, and as our crews came to the scene, they did notice that the fire was through the roof,” he said.
Rainboth said the cause of the fire was still unknown. One firefighter was treated for minor injuries at the scene, he said.
Valenti was also treated for cuts and taken to hospital before being released. He said the experience was something he won’t soon forget.
“It's a wake-up call to me,” he said. “It says to me: live your life.”
With a report from CTV News Ottawa
