Ottawa firefighters used a ladder to rescue a man from his burning third-floor apartment in Centretown on Friday morning.

It happened on Elgin Street near Gladstone Avenue just before 8 a.m.

I couldn't see. I couldn't go through the apartment to go downstairs. I had to go to the balcony and yell to someone on the street to call 911. - Cedrick Broom

"I'm just shaking, I can't even tell you," said Cedrick Broom after speaking with investigators.

Broom said he returned home around 4:30 a.m. from his job cleaning a downtown office tower and was asleep when the fire broke out.

He said he hadn't done any cooking before going to bed, but did switch on his air conditioner. He woke to find his unit filled with smoke.

"I couldn't see. I couldn't go through the apartment to go downstairs. I had to go to the balcony and yell to someone on the street to call 911," said Broom, who's lived in the apartment for 25 years.

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Firefighters soon arrived and used a ladder to rescue him from the balcony

Broom was later taken to hospital after complaining to paramedics he was having difficulty breathing. Other tenants and their pets were evacuated safely from the building.

Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the fire.

2-alarm fire

Firefighters called for backup around 8:15 a.m.

"Fire can travel very quickly through these old buildings," said Rod Fleck, a platoon chief. "So we take the precautions of having more people here at the beginning so if the fire does travel we have the resources here to handle it right away."

Firefighters were also taking precautions in case the building contains asbestos.

Elgin Street is closed because of the reconstruction project, but Fleck said that didn't slow the response.

"We actually got lucky with the section the fire's in. We could get our trucks basically right up to the front door," he said.

OC Transpo's route 14 Carlington bus is skipping its stops along Gladstone at Metcalfe, O'Connor and Bank streets to avoid the scene.