The demolition of a vacant warehouse on McDermot Avenue has resumed, two weeks after provincial inspectors identified the potential of asbestos inside and halted operations.
Contractors were on site at 579 McDermot Ave. Thursday afternoon, spraying the five-storey building with water from a hydrant before using heavy machinery to reduce it to rubble.
City spokesperson Kalen Qually said Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health lifted the stop-work order this week, allowing the owner to initiate a “wet” demolition.
People living nearby, and those evacuated from a neighbouring home, were pleased to learn of the development, saying the partially destroyed building had become a magnet for squatters and criminal activity despite efforts to keep it secure.
“It’s not safe at all, for anyone,” said Viv Ketchum, who has lived near the warehouse for more than 10 years.
Tyler Searle / Free Press
Viv Ketchum, who has lived near 579 McDermot Ave. for more than a decade, said the building became a magnet for squatters and criminal activity after the demolition was halted.
“I’ve heard there were people going in there, but I didn’t believe it until I saw it.”
Ketchum said she was walking past the building Wednesday evening when she noticed the front door was ajar. She phoned police and later saw a man leaving with a bike.
“I was scared, actually, that somebody would even go in there because it looks pretty unstable inside,” Ketchum said.
“If people go in there and they are using (drugs) or stealing, they are putting (firefighters), police and emergency personnel at risk.”
Tyler Searle / Free Press
Viv Ketchum: People bypassed a security fence erected around the property and entered through an unsecured front door, where they used drugs and pillaged the building for errant tools, building materials and copper.
The door remained open Thursday afternoon when the Free Press visited the site.
Evidence of drug use, including discarded pipes and needles, was littered around the building’s exterior. There was feces inside the front entrance.
Qually urged people to contact the city if they notice breaches in the metal fencing surrounding the building’s perimeter.
“If there were issues noticed, then we would notify the demolition contractor as it is their responsibility to maintain site security until the work is completed,” he said.
Tyler Searle / Free Press
Contractors were on site at 579 McDermot Ave. Aug. 15, where work was underway to complete a demolition of the crumbling warehouse.
The city ordered an emergency demolition in early July after an engineering report determined the warehouse was at risk of collapse. The vacant structure was in the process of being converted into a 50-unit apartment block.
A neighbouring multi-suite home was also ordered to be evacuated on July 5.
The evacuation order is expected to remain in place until the demolition reaches a point where it’s safe to return or the demo is completed, Qually said.
One evacuee said he was glad to see progress being made, but expressed frustration over the lack of resources available to him and others in their current situation.
Tyler Searle / Free Press
Workers were required to spray the building with water during the demolition, due to the possible presence of asbestos.
“We are collateral damage, man, I don’t know how else to put it,” he said, asking not to be identified. “I have a few hundred dollars left to me, and I have to choose between a hotel, my dog’s medications or food and bus fare.”
The city supported the evacuated tenants with a 72-hour hotel stay at a nearby hotel, but they’ve received nothing further, he said.
City officials previously said long-term support for displaced residents is the responsibility of the provincial government.
With nowhere left to turn, some tenants flouted the evacuation order and returned to their suites when the province halted the warehouse demolition. City bylaw officers caught wind of the violation and arrived at the home last Friday to evict the people inside, the man said.
The landlord has since been ordered to change the home’s locks to prevent tenants from returning until the evacuation order is lifted, he said.
tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca
Tyler Searle
Reporter
Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press‘s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.
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