'Jumped two stories in my underwear': Students escape house fire in frigid downtown London, Ont.

When the upper unit of a house in downtown London, Ont. caught fire at approximately 7:40 a.m. Saturday morning, the two young men had nowhere to go, but out the back window.

When the upper unit of a house in downtown London, Ont. caught fire at approximately 7:40 a.m. Saturday morning, the two young men had nowhere to go, but out the back window.

"The guys woke up to a fire on their front deck there,” said neighbour Chris Mosher. “They had to jump out the back window, two stories in their underwear.”

CTV News London spoke off camera to one of the young men from the GTA who lives upstairs. He said he initially didn’t believe what was happening, but when he did, he had no time to grab anything.

Downstairs, Michael Ritchie-Dickinson and his Mill Street roommates were sleeping when they learned the upstairs was on fire.

“We woke up to someone banging on our window,” recalled Ritchie-Dickinson. “We saw orange, got dressed, went outside and the top floor was engulfed in flames. We only had time to get dressed, grab my phone and that's it.”

Neither of the young men in the upper unit were injured, but their entire home is gutted.