Two buildings were destroyed and several others were damaged after a fire broke out overnight in downtown Magog, in the Eastern Townships.

A commercial/residential building in Magog's downtown core caught fire around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday when a windstorm knocked down a Hydro pole, and the flames were whipped up by the strong winds.

One of the 15 inside the building, one man said he was awake – and saw the transformer explode.

William Theriault Venne, 18, just moved into the building last week with his girlfriend. He acted quickly when he saw the emergency.

“I pulled the fire alarm but nothing happened,” he said. “No smoke detectors were working, so I started yelling at everyone to get out. They were asking what's going on. I just said, ‘You’ve got to go as quickly as possible,’”

Another resident said by the time he opened his door, the hallways had already filled with smoke. Some tenants said they couldn’t see more than a metre in front of them.

Everybody managed to evacuate the century-old building without any difficulty and nobody was hurt, although two firefighters suffered minor injuries.

At one point, the fire was so intense that people said they could feel the heat from blocks away.

“Our firefighters said they’ve never seen that here. Our main problem was the wind. The wind caused a lot of problems for our firefighters. We had to evacuate a large area because of the smoke, not because of the fire,” said Magog Mayor Vicki-May Hamm.

Firefighters from several nearby towns and cities were called for help. Flames still caused damage to several other nearby buildings before the fire was brought under control.

Only rubble remained of the building on Rue Principale near Sherbrooke St. in Magog that at one point was the Magog Opera House. The building had several stores at street level with apartments above, and the owner of a hair salon said she lost about $250,000 in equipment and products.

Two buildings in total are now uninhabitable.

The Magog Hospital cancelled many appointments on Tuesday because of the fire. It said that it had lost power and was being supplied by generators, and as a result surgeries and other procedures were being rescheduled. It was also asking people planning to visit patients to come at another time.

The Red Cross is providing temporary shelter to those who lost everything in the fire, and a civil security organization is also helping people.

“It’s rough,” said Theriault Venne.

His partner, Sofyana Brown-Dupuis said they were just starting their lives together in the home.

“It was my first apartment,” she said. “We lost everything and we still hadn’t bought insurance. At least we’re okay.”

Firefighters are now investigating what caused the fire.