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Nude people clad only in bedsheets flee fire at Montreal swingers club
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MONTREAL - Several people wrapped in only bedsheets and towels were forced to flee a fire Friday at a Montreal swingers' club.


Firefighters climbed ladders and smashed windows to rescue five people, including patrons and club employees, who were trapped on the building's second floor.


Five others escaped on their own and were standing outside when firefighters arrived shortly after 6:30 a.m., a spokesman for the city's fire department said.


The appearance of the barely dressed victims surprised neighbours on the street.


"They had sheets on them but they didn't have a lot of clothes on coming down (the ladder)," said fire department spokesman Gilles Ducharme.


"I don't know how many of them were not dressed, but there were a few of them - maybe five or six - that had only sheets on them."


The clients and staff members were given shelter on a fire department bus while 60 firefighters took an hour to bring the basement blaze under control.


Ducharme said ambulance attendants treated six people at the scene for minor smoke inhalation.


The swingers club has several rooms on the second floor and a sauna in the basement, an area that sustained around $75,000 in damage, Ducharme said.


The fire department is investigating.


"It seems accidental," he said. "It probably (started in) the heating system of the sauna."