Saskatoon Fire Department closes 16 suites at troubled Prairie Heights condo tower

It took the Saskatoon Fire Department less than 24 hours after its most recent inspection of a condo tower at 1416 20th St. W to conclude that almost half the suites were too filthy for people to inhabit.

On Wednesday, it ordered that 16 of the 44 suites in the Prairie Heights tower be closed.

"Up until now we have been able to remedy the life safety issues in the building," Chief Morgan Hackl in a news release on Thursday.

"Following repeated inspections, orders to remedy issues, and tickets, the conditions in a number of suites have degraded to such an extreme state the Fire Department can no longer, in good conscience, allow people to live there."

• 'Cockroaches, bodily fluids and drug paraphenalia': Inside a troubled Saskatoon condo tower

Inspectors went through the entire building on April 20, suite by suite. Hackl says the tour revealed more than a dozen health-and-safety concerns, including:

• Unsafe and unsanitary conditions. 
• No water to some suites. 
• Damaged fire separations. 
• Sewer waste back up. 
• Stolen copper pipes in some suites. 
• Unauthorized entry where suites are to be vacant. 
• Food and human waste. 
• Cockroaches. 
• Damaged suite doors. 
• Missing smoke alarms. 
• Damaged cooking facilities, such as missing oven doors. 
• Ovens being used as a heating source. 

Hackl says 12 residents have been moved to cleaner, safer accommodations.

The city has struggled for more than a year with the building. It's attracted attention of both fire fighters and police.

The fire department was called to the building 109 times in 2020 and 45 times so far this year. These do not include inspections and investigations.

Saskatoon police took 403 calls for service to the building in 2020, half for suspicious people or disturbances. The remaining calls included domestic disputes, weapons and intoxicated people.