2 dead after fire at 6-suite building in central Winnipeg
CBC News | Posted: December 21, 2023 5:50 PM | Last Updated: December 21, 2023
Firefighters helped at least 4 others get out of building
A fire in Winnipeg's inner city claimed the lives of two people on Thursday morning.
Emergency crews were called just before 10 a.m. to a three-storey, six-suite building at the corner of McDermot Avenue and Juno Street in the city's Centennial neighbourhood.
The two people were found inside one of the suites and pronounced dead at the scene.
A total of 10 people were forced to evacuate the building, with firefighters helping at least four of them. There were no injuries to anyone other than the two people who died, said Dick Vlaming, platoon chief with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service.
No information has been provided about the ages or sex of the victims.
There is also no word on the cause of the fire, which left the building extensively damaged after spreading into the roof.
Scorch marks can be seen around the window of a top-level suite. Heavy smoke and flames were erupting from it when crews first arrived, Vlaming said.
Colleen Sumner, who has lived in the building for more than two years, said it has a lot of drug users living in it and visiting.
"All night, all morning, all day," she said. There are discarded needles left all over the property, she said.
Sumner didn't know either of the two people who died and has no idea when she'll be able to get back into her suite, which is also on the third floor. She escaped with only the clothes she was wearing, a blanket and her cat.
"All our stuff is there [and] it's full of water," she said.
Sumner's daughter April Koop said there is no fire escape at back and no exit plans posted anywhere in the building.
"There's no back door, no ladders, no anything to go down the building with," she said.
Vlaming said the blaze was the fourth in five hours in the city on Thursday.
"It's been taxing on everybody," he said, speaking to reporters near the McDermot scene.