Neighbour helps residents evacuate burning home in Orléans

Ottawa firefighters responded to a fire at single family home on Belcourt Boulevard in Orléans. Oct. 26, 2025. (Brad Quinn/CTV News Ottawa)

Ottawa firefighters responded to a fire at a bungalow in the 1700 block of Belcourt Boulevard in Orléans on Sunday morning, after a neighbour jumped into action to warn its residents.

Ottawa Fire Services said in a press release that they received a call at 9:30 a.m. indicating that the garage of a home was “fully engulfed in smoke and flames.”

Neighbour Serge Pinard says he spotted the flames while he was out in his yard.

“I was working on my utility trailer in my driveway, and this gentleman came up to me and said ‘are they making a bonfire for a reason or something?’ I said, ‘no it’s a fire,’” Pinard told CTV News.

Pinard says he went over to warn his neighbours of the fire, entering the home to bang on doors in the house and ensure the residents evacuated.

“I went in and I kicked every door on the house,” Pinard said.

“I got everybody out, so everybody’s safe and sound. So that’s the main thing, the house is only material.”

Pinard says he was a volunteer firefighter in Cumberland in the 1990s and was worried the fire would spread quickly.

“I said to my mind, ‘I hope it doesn’t go through too fast, and then I can’t get through’ because I started going downstairs, because they have no escape, the windows are too small,” he said.

By the time the basement had been cleared and Pinard arrived upstairs, he says the smoke had gotten quite strong.

Jayd Peckham, an occupant of the home, says he was in his bedroom when he heard Pinard banging on the doors in the home.

“He was upstairs, downstairs banging on all the doors,” Peckham told CTV News Ottawa.

“I woke up grabbed a couple things, ran out of the house, saw the carport on fire and basically within five to 10 minutes, the whole house was engulfed in flames, there wasn’t much we could do.”

While the house has been charred and Peckham lost many personal items, he says he’s glad everyone in the home was able to evacuate safely.

“I lost a lot of memories that I had in my room, but it’s all replaceable stuff so I’m just glad everyone made it out okay,” Peckham said.

Firefighters say they completed two full searches of the residence and found no occupants inside.

At 11:09, the fire was declared under control.

Ottawa paramedics told CTV News that they were on standby at the fire, but received no patients and left the area before 11:30 a.m.

Firefighters say an investigator was dispatched to the scene to determine the cause and origin of the fire, and a fire watch is at the scene to monitor possible flare ups.

With files from CTV’s Austin Lee.

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