Winnipeg fire crews were kept busy through the Canada Day long weekend, responding to a rash of blazes that torched seven buildings throughout the city.
The 400 block of William Avenue, between Ellen Street and Gertie Street, was closed Sunday morning as firefighters battled a fire in a vacant rooming house that started sometime around 5:30 a.m.
“Upon arrival on scene, crews found heavy smoke and flames coming from the structure,” the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service wrote in a news release Sunday. “Due to the dangerous fire conditions, crews were unable to enter the building.”
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Winnipeg fire crews have responded to seven fires throughout Canada Day long weekend so far.
Firefighters deployed hand lines and an aerial ladder truck to douse the two-and-a-half storey house with water. The building, which was involved in another fire less than three weeks ago, suffered significant damage and was determined to be a complete loss. An emergency demolition was to be completed throughout the day, WFPS said.
The blaze was the seventh to occur in Winnipeg since Friday, according to news releases.
Saturday saw crews respond to a vacant, three-storey apartment complex on the 500 block of Balmoral Street at 9:39 p.m.
The building’s interior was filled with smoke, but crews were able to enter and fight the fire from inside. Firefighters declared the blaze under control in roughly one hour, WFPS said.
About 12 hours earlier, the fire service received a report of a blaze in a two-storey townhouse complex on the first 100 block of Rougeau Avenue, WFPS said in a separate release issued Saturday.
“At the scene, crews found smoke in one of the units. They entered and quickly extinguished a fire involving a clothing dryer. The fire was contained to the suite where the fire originated,” it said.
Elsewhere on Saturday, on the 200 block of Charles Street, a fire broke out in a two-and-a-half-storey residence around 4:24 a.m. Crews found smoke and flames coming from the building when they arrived, but were able to make entry and quickly declare the fire under control, WFPS said.
A little more than an hour later, at 5:42 a.m., fire crews arrived at a single-family bungalow on the 1400 block of Pritchard Avenue which was engulfed in flames and smoke, the release said.
“(Firefighters) launched a fire attack from the exterior of the house. Once conditions improved they were able to transition to an interior fire attack, declaring the fire under control at 6:51 a.m.,” it said.
Occupants of the home fled to safety before crews arrived. Firefighters also evacuated a neighbouring house as a precaution.
It was the second time crews responded to Pritchard Avenue over the weekend, with a two-storey residence on the 400 block catching fire just before midnight on Friday.
The fire was discovered and reported by an on-duty Winnipeg Police Service crew driving through the area. It was under control just before 1 a.m., WFPS said.
The second blaze to occur on Friday, at around 8 p.m., was a vacant, single-storey house on the 400 block of Burrows Avenue.
Nobody was injured in any of the fires. All incidents remain under investigation, save for the fire on Rougeau Avenue, which is believed to be accidentally caused by a malfunctioning clothes dryer, WFPS 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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