Queen St. Fire drives residents from homes causing extensive damage

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Clouds of smoke billowed across Queen Street North in Hamilton Saturday afternoon as a stubborn fire drove the residents of two homes out into the cold.

As the heavy smoke was building up in the attic of the centre unit, none of the residents inside the homes were aware of the fire.

Resident Frank Trentin was one of them.

Luckily for him and the tenants of a second attached unit, their neighbour Silvio Buananno was outside, and saw the smoke right away and alerted them.

Trentin owns the unit where the fire began, and although fire crews haven’t determined the cause yet,  he thinks he knows what it was electrical.

In all, six residents of the two units were forced out by the fire, and stayed warm on a city bus.

They are now waiting for the Red Cross to find temporary accommodation for them.

Trentin wasn’t sure about his insurance situation Saturday afternoon.

Damage was estimated at around $250,000. There were no injuries.