The City of Winnipeg has been urged to take action after four fires ripped through three encampments in four days, including two blazes within hours at a single site.
Pat McNorgan said two fires in the Balmoral Street area early Oct. 19 woke him up, as flames spread through a park encampment close to apartment buildings.
“Had it been a windy day, there could have been a major disaster here because the fire was huge and it was mere feet away from (a building),” said McNorgan.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
A fire at an encampment near Balmoral Street began with what a resident says sounded like exploding propane containers.
He accused the city of failing to enforce its bylaws, which prohibit camping, littering and dumping in parks.
“I’m concerned about injury. I’m concerned about safety,” said McNorgan.
The resident said he believes the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service should remove the encampment near his home due to the safety risks it poses to its residents and their neighbours.
He said loud booms accompanied the pair of fires last week, which he suspects were due to exploding propane tanks.
“If almost setting a building on fire or exposing people to shrapnel from exploding propane tanks isn’t causing harm, well, I don’t know what is,” said McNorgan.
On Wednesday, the site contained multiple tents, trash and charred wood.
WFPS confirmed it extinguished two fires at the encampment near 37 Balmoral St. on Oct. 19, with one reported at 3:03 a.m. and another at 6:16 a.m. Crews responded to an encampment fire at 340 Waterfront Dr. at 1:46 p.m. on Oct. 16 and another at 300 Assiniboine Ave. at 3:18 a.m. on Oct. 18, WFPS said, in an email.
No injuries were reported.
When asked whether the city will issue an order to vacate the encampments due to safety concerns, WFPS sent a statement that describes its general policy.
“City staff will only intervene if there is an immediate risk to public or personal safety as a result of the activity in the encampment. Structures are removed only when activities or living conditions are dangerous… If there is a pattern of persistent behaviour that is a risk to life and safety, we may direct residents to vacate the site,” wrote WFPS spokeswoman Kristin Cuma.
Cuma noted the city works with outreach agencies to connect the people who live at encampments with support servies. It referred 230 encampment reports made to 311 to those agencies between January and June.
WFPS declined an interview request.
Laurie Nealin, an Exchange District resident who lives near the site of the Waterfront Drive fire, believes that encampments damaged by fire should be deemed unsafe, especially for the people who live in them.
“You can’t deal with your mental health issues, you can’t deal with addictions when you’re just trying to survive day to day on a riverbank. It just does not work… From what we can tell, the current protocol is to leave people where they are,” said Nealin.
Nealin fears a fire will eventually prove deadly.
“The fear is just for the loss of human life. Those encampments, some of them are very close together (making it easy for fires to spread),” she said.
Mayor Scott Gillingham said he is concerned about the fire risk at encampments.
“Where there are safety issues, our staff will and should work with outreach providers to make sure that those sites are safe,” said Gillingham.
The mayor stressed the city’s goal is to get the camp residents into housing.
“Right now, there’s too many people in encampments, there’s too much garbage and it’s too unsafe at times. We want to make sure public safety is addressed, that people get into housing with wrap-around supports,” said Gillingham.
He said the city is reviewing its encampment policy but it’s too soon to say what could change.
The current policy of providing outreach services to camp dwellers, instead of the past practice of forcing them off public land, is meant to avoid displacing people who have nowhere else to go, said Gillingham.
“I don’t want to see people in any encampment. It also doesn’t work just to shuffle people from one end of the city to the other,” he said.
A group that conducts outreach work to support the homeless urged the city to reduce the fire risk by providing encampment residents with supplies to help them safely stay warm.
“Folks who are living on the streets and unsheltered need to stay warm. The city could be providing things like sand at all the encampments so that… folks can extinguish (out-of-control fires),” said Carey Richards, associate executive director of the West Central Women’s Resource Centre.
Richards suggested the city could also provide burn barrels to better contain fires.
“There needs to be a lot more housing options for folks and that’s the ultimate solution… but it’s definitely not the solution to evict folks from one encampment. They’re going to go elsewhere.”
Meanwhile, a city councillor said he sympathizes with people who live near such sites and fear repeated fires.
“If it’s a life safety issue, then we need to do some type of enforcement. If we need to do a vacate order, then we need to do a vacate order,” said Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood). “I don’t want to see anybody living on the streets… However, with the encampments, you can’t set up shop in somebody’s neighbourhood and have open fires burning, propane tanks set up everywhere.”
The councillor said the city and province are making progress on the issue but more urgency is needed.
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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter
Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.
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