Ottawa surpasses 300 cm of snow for the winter, a Gatineau, Que. mansion built too close to the road can remain standing and taking off for the weekend to Las Vegas.

CTVNewsOttawa.ca looks at the top five stories on our website this week.

Woman, 67, dead in Sandy Hill apartment fire

Friends and neighbours remember an Ottawa woman who died in a Sandy Hill apartment fire this week as a "good person", who loved her dog and spent time with neighbours.

Shirley Bennett died in a fire early Tuesday morning in her apartment on Wiggins Private, in the south end of Sandy Hill.

Fire officials said the call came in from an alarm monitoring company just after 10:10 p.m.

Firefighters traced the fire to the bedroom and quickly put it out, officials said.

"An occupant was located and rescued out of the apartment by firefighters," Ottawa Fire Services said in a news release. "Firefighters brought the occupant outside and assessed and treated the occupant prior to Ottawa Paramedics arriving on scene."

Neighbours said Bennett recently moved into the apartment.

"All the people in the neighbourhood knew her as a good person, we celebrated her birthday five months ago," said Raymond Lafleur.

The Office of the Fire Marshal and the Ottawa police arson unit are investigating the fire.

City crews spent the week cleaning up as a winter storm last weekend pushed Ottawa's snowfall total above 300 cm for the winter.

All the snow has Ottawa residents looking for help from the city to clear the snowbanks from roads and sidewalks, saying it's creating hazardous conditions.

Snowbanks have made Rachelle Fontaine's walks with her dog, 5-year-old Fitzgerald, treacherous.

"The snowbanks have been huge and hard to get by," she says. "They're taller than me, and I'm pretty tall."

City crews say it could take until next week before they're finished clearing all of the streets, sidewalks and snowbanks.

A total of 308.5 cm of snow has fallen in Ottawa this winter, the second-highest snowfall total over the past 20 years.

All the snow has the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority warning of the potential of flooding along waterways in the Rideau Valley Watershed.

"Based solely on the fact we have above-average snow water content and above-normal water levels in some upper watershed lakes, there is potential for above-average flooding this spring across the Rideau Valley watershed, especially in low-lying areas which have flooded in the past," the conservation authority said in a statement.

"Precipitation and temperature are two other key factors influencing actual flood conditions as we move through March and into April, which staff will monitor closely."