Firefighters have knocked down a fire at a two-storey rooming house in Ottawa’s Chinatown neighbourhood, which has left up to six peope homeless.

Crews responded to the building at 14 Lebreton St. North near Somerset Street West for a working fire at about 8:40 a.m. Sunday.

They deemed the blaze began in the second-floor kitchen and spread to the roof.

Nobody was found inside the home but the Red Cross and victims services were called in to help six people who lived in the building.

After fighting the fire for about an hour, an evacuation order was given ordering all firefighters to leave, as well.

They worried the home would collapse due to the flames, so firefighters began attacking in a defensive mode from outside.

The damage costs are estimated at $450,000 and the suspected cause is unattended cooking, but investigators have not made a final decision.

Somerset was closed between Booth Street and Empress Avenue while Lebreton was closed between Somerset and Eccles streets. Those streets have since reopened.