DRUMMONDVILLE, Que. — An unknown number of people are unaccounted for after a fire in an apartment building in central Quebec.
Reports say one person is dead but provincial police are not confirming the information because people may have been away at the time of the blaze.
The three-storey building in Drummondville has about 30 apartments.
The cause of the fire is not yet known but it is believed to have started in a second-floor unit.
About 50 firefighters from the town and surrounding communities had the fire under control a few hours after it began in the wee hours.
Georges Gagnon, head of the Drummondville fire service, said smoke filled the building very quickly.
"When the firefighters arrived on the scene, there were flames on the second floor and a lot of smoke on the third," Gagnon said.
"There were people on balconies, so the priority was getting to these people and making sure they were safe and sound."
Provincial police Sgt. Aurelie Guindon said it was too early to say whether anyone had died in the blaze.
"It is a major fire that has caused considerable damage to the building," she said. "Right now, we're trying to track down everybody who lived there so we can see how many are missing."
Occupant Isabelle Sawyer escaped after people knocked at her door to tell her to flee her first-floor apartment.
"When we got out, I saw the flames, the smoke," she told RDI, Radio-Canada's all-news channel. "It was burning like a house of cards. I heard people screaming on balconies. It was apocalyptic."
Several people were taken to hospital.
