Point Douglas rooming house fire kills 1, sends 3 to hospital

One person died after a house fire on Euclid Avenue Friday night, Winnipeg police say.

Emergency crews were called to the house in the 100 block of Euclid Avenue around 11:15 p.m.

Police confirmed that one man in his 40s died and three other adults were taken to hospital in stable condition due to injuries they suffered escaping the fire.

On Sunday, police spokesperson Const. Rob Carver said the fire is being investigated as a possible arson. However, police are not actively searching for any suspects at this point in the investigation. 

'People were just trying to get out'

After hearing sirens, Euclid Avenue resident Matt Thordarson went outside to find the house ablaze. 

"There was smoke billowing out of the top of the house," he said. "The top floor of the house was just engulfed in flames. And the second floor was slowly getting engulfed in flames. And that's when the fire crew showed up."  

He said he and others stood in the back lane yelling and trying to warn people to get out, unsure if anyone was inside. 

"I was like, 'Holy crap, get out of there!'" Thordarson said. 

Then, he said, people started jumping down from windows.

Thordarson said the back windows of the house have a ledge, and that he saw two or three people jump down from it.

"That whole place is like a rooming house. The whole place is like one big corridor with a bunch of rooms, so you could tell people were just trying to get out."

Rooming houses need to be safe, activist says

Point Douglas Residents' Committee chair Sel Burrows said this is the third death in a rooming house fire in the neighbourhood in the last two years. Two men face second-degree murder and arson charges after a rooming house fire on Austin Street North in July 2016.

Burrows became emotional when talking about the impact of the fire.

"I'm really angry. I'm really sad. This shouldn't be happening. We just had a big conference on homelessness. Rooming houses are the last place before you're homeless, they have to be well run," he said.

"We in the residents' committee are on record, we support rooming houses. Poor people desperately need a place to live, but they must be well run. This is one is not well run."

Burrows said there were more than a dozen people living in the house, and there were problems with drinking, drugs and fights. 

Thordarson, who is also a member of the residents' committee, said after a fatal stabbing this summer, residents asked the landlord to clean the place up. He said security cameras have been installed since then. 

• Man killed, woman injured in Point Douglas stabbing

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