Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION
Two women taken to hospital after fire
An elderly resident of Summerland apartments on University Crescent waves for attention from her balcony as other residents evacuate the building. (PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Paramedics on standby watch from a long line of emergency vehicles as firefighters evacuate Summerland apartments . (PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
An elderly resident of Summerland apartments on University Crescent is evacuated on a stretcher Monday. (PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Two women were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation Monday afternoon after a fire broke out in the twin residential highrise towers at 77 University Cres.
About 20 fire and rescue vehicles and ambulances swarmed the site just off Pembina Highway and Bishop Grandin Boulevard at 3:30 p.m.
While the fire turned out to be minor, Bill Clark, assistant chief of operations for the Winnipeg Fire Department, said the situation had the potential to be a lot worse.
"This fire had potential and we have a policy of ‘just get big,’" Clark said.
Todd Doyle said his mother, Lorraine, 78, was one of the two women taken to hospital. Doyle said his mother suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung disease that makes it hard to breathe.
Doyle said his mother was stabilized at hospital and he expects her to be fine.
The two towers are connected with a floor-to-ceiling atrium, which Clark said filled quickly with smoke.
"I came home and saw the atrium filled with pitch black smoke," resident Garry Norman said as he waited outside on University Crescent.
Clark said vents on the atrium’s rooftop opened when the fire alarm was triggered, allowing the smoke to billow out into the sky.
"The building worked as it was designed," he said.
The building was evacuated and some tenants waited in Winnipeg Transit buses while others milled about on the street.
Winnipeg Police Patrol Sgt. Sandra Martin said the fire started in a second-floor suite in the east tower, where it’s believed a resident was cooking with oil that boiled over.
Martin said the tenant was unable to contain the spread of the fire and he contacted 911.
The fire spread to the unit above on the third floor, but Clark said both fires were brought under control quickly.
Although the building filled with smoke, it cleared quickly. However, there remained high levels of carbon monoxide, a colourless and odourless gas, which had to be vented from the complex before residents were allowed to return.
The fire broke out just as the afternoon rush hour began. To assist firefighters, police closed the two northbound lanes of Pembina Highway just south of Bishop Grandin and closed University Crescent between Pembina Highway and Thatcher Drive.
Clark said the first firefighters on the scene had to deal with two faulty street fire hydrants — one was frozen and the other wasn’t working properly.
"That happens every spring," Clark said, noting that some hydrants are affected when the ground remains frozen at this time of year.
aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca
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