25 people are without a place to live right now after a large fire in the early morning hours of Boxing Day. 

The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service was called to the 500 block of Agnes Street at 2:21 a.m. the City of Winnipeg says in a release.

The fire was in a three-storey apartment building. The United Firefighters of Winnipeg union called the fire "dangerous" in an early morning tweet. Firefighters initially went into the building to try and fight the fire but were forced out due to deteriorating conditions.

Crews were able to complete a search of the building before exiting and were able to confirm that all occupants had self-evacuated. One cat was located in the building and brought to safety. Neighbouring properties were also evacuated as a precaution. A Winnipeg Transit bus was brought to the scene to shelter the occupants.

WFPS Paramedics assessed a number of individuals on scene but no one required transport to hospital. The City’s Emergency Social Services team was deployed to the scene to provide support to the approximately 25 individuals displaced by the fire.

Crews are expected to remain on scene throughout the day today as they continue to extinguish hot spots.

Residents lose everything as building demolished

The building suffered significant damage in the fire. Assistant fire chief Ihor Holowczynsky says that considering the scope of the fire it's amazing that nobody lost their life or was injured.

The building was scheduled to be torn down later on Boxing Day.

Because of the extent of the damage Holowczynsky says that residents were not allowed to go back into the building to look for possessions. That means residents were left with just the clothes on their backs.

The City's social services responded at the time of the fire and were assisting the displaced people.