About 20 Verdun residents are without a home as a result of a Sunday evening fire that burnt a Verdun home to the ground and badly damaged an adjoining building in the western section of the borough.

Walter Wong was lying in bed on Godin St. near Bannantyne in western Verdun when he heard an explosion at 8:15 p.m. Sunday.

"Twenty seconds later black smoke came billowing," said Wong.

He scrambled to get out of his house and found his first escape route was blocked.

"I rolled myself off the bed, seen the light that was in the kitchen that was the only giveaway I got to get out. Grabbed my wife she was just frozen with fear, I threw her down the hallway, grabbed the dog was going out back. Orange ball of flame. Forget it I was coming out the front," said Wong.

He, his wife, and his dog made it out safely but they don't know how much they will be able to recover from their home.

The fire raging next door at 832 Godin St. required five fire crews to defeat, and to prevent the flames from spreading, but crews were unable to stop the flames before they destroyed the building.

The building was undergoing renovations, and with reports that the fire started with an explosion, the arson squad is still trying to determine how the fire began.

"Investigators are going to come on site and meet with the owner of the property," said Montreal police representative Jean-Pierre Brabant. "But for now there's nothing that leads us to any criminal fire here."

The only sign that a building was once in the lot are the exterior iron staircases, still standing at the front of the home.

The flames and heat did damage the buildings on either side, and the roof to at least one building has a gaping hole, with soot and ash remaining where a plastered wall once stood.

Meanwhile the torrents of water poured on the flames seeped through the brick walls of the rowhouses, knocking out furnaces and leaving sheets of ice behind.

Wong was at his home on Monday, wearing heavy winter gear as he walked inside and tried to salvage what he could.

He is being helped by his neighbours, who have offered him a place to stay while he figures out how long it will take to return home.