TORONTO -- Officials say six people have been taken to hospital following a house fire in Oshawa this morning.
The blaze broke out at a home near Albert and Bloor streets shortly before 7 a.m.
Seven occupants of the residence managed to escape the fire, Oshawa Fire Chief Derrick Clark told reporters at the scene on Sunday morning.
“Six of those persons have gone to hospital with various degrees of injuries from burns to smoke inhalation,” Clark said.
One person sustained serious injuries but all victims are expected to survive.
Officials initially said an eighth resident was unaccounted for but later confirmed that they had been located at another address.
Crews remain on scene and roads are closed in the area for the fire investigation.
“We have extensive damage to the house. The initial crews did an exception job to contain the fire, get it under control relatively quickly. In this heat it is a difficult job,” Clark said.
He noted that crews were concerned about the fire spreading to a nearby gas station but firefighters were able to contain the blaze.
"The fire is extensive. It will be a total loss to the building," Clark said.
A fire inspector is currently on scene and the Office of the Fire Marshal (OFM) has been called in to probe the circumstances surrounding the blaze.
“Our early investigation is pointing us into the direction that this may be a rooming house situation. So we are going to follow that up in our investigation,” Clark said.
“We are going to try and do the best we can to determine cause origin and the circumstances around this fire, what started it and what led to the fire prior to crews arriving.”
Clark said it is too early to say where the fire started inside the home.
"Our team will start looking at that with the Ontario Fire Marshal," he said.
