An intense apartment fire near Montreal has left as many as 60 people homeless.

Investigators believe Monday night's fire started in a top-floor unit and was sparked by hot cooking oil left on a stove.

The blaze spread quickly through the four-storey structure, heavily damaging the two dozen units inside the building in Longueuil's Saint-Hubert sector.

David Dacosta, a 15-year-old who was a victim of the fire, said he grabbed what he could before fleeing.

“I didn't think of grabbing anything else. This jacket is all I have right now,” he said.

Dacosta was home alone when he saw smoke pouring from the ceiling. He quickly left the building, without even his shoes – and had to borrow his mother’s.

He and his mother Suzie Tryoen had just moved in.

“I think I everything,” said Tryoen. “I just moved in July. It was my new apartment.”

Tryoen said her ex also lives in the apartment building and had their five-year-old son.

“I’m just very happy everyone is in health and nobody was injured in the fire,” she said.

While no residents were injured, Longueuil police spokeswoman Melanie Mercille said three firefighters and a police officer suffered minor injuries and were later discharged from hospital.

One of the firefighters was treated for a possible concussion after a hose broke its coupling, striking his in the head.

Local firefighters, who fought the blaze in a wind chill in -25 C temperatures, were helped by colleagues from Montreal and other nearby communities.

“When we just arrived, we went in the first apartment and as soon as we opened the walls, the fire was there. So we go up the second, that was the same thing, to the third, same thing, and finally to the roof,” said Longueuil fire chief Mario Martin.

Martin said the timing helped everyone get out safely.

“The hour helped us. At midnight, maybe it would not be the same thing, but at dinner time everybody is alert,” he said.

Some of the roughly 60 residents left homeless found shelter with family and friends while others were being assisted by the Canadian Red Cross.

Red Cross spokesman Carl Boisvert said 26 have been taken in by the aid organization and offered food, shelter and clothing for the next three days.

"Also moral support, because we know people affected by the disaster are upset," Boisvert said Tuesday. "So the volunteers were there to give them moral support and to answer their basic needs."

Boisvert said their situations will be reassessed in 72 hours and that that no one will end up on the street.

He said Red Cross volunteers have been increasingly in demand as the deep freeze following the holidays has coincided with a spate of blazes in different parts of the province.

With files from The Canadian Press