3 charged with arson in Sherbrook blaze

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

A member from the Office of the Fire Commissioner looks for clues in the rubble of an apartment building destroyed by fire Saturday morning on Sherbrook St, Police have made at least one arrest in connection with the fire.

Police have charged two men and one male youth with arson in connection with a spectacular fire that destroyed an apartment building on Sherbrook Street yesterday.

Sunday morning, police still had Sherbrook from Ellice Avenue to Sargent Avenue taped off as investigators probed the suspected arson, which caused $1 million in damages.

Enlarge Image

MIKE DEAL photos / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Blaze forced the evacuation of about 50 people from 577 Sherbrook St. and two adjacent buildings. (MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Enlarge Image

Firefighters pour water on blaze. (MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

The apartment building is little more than rubble now. Demolition crews are one scene with heavy equipment, removing the debris.

The three suspects have been charged with arson with disregard for human life and arson with damage to property, police said Sunday morning. They remain in custody.

Terrified residents of the apartment building who were waiting to be rescued by firefighters were forced to huddle by their windows Saturday as smoke billowed around them and flames grew closer.

Thankfully, it appears that while almost two dozen people were rushed to hospital, nobody died in the blaze.

But residents of 577 Sherbrook St., most or all of whom are on social assistance, said what few possessions they had were lost in the flames and they have no apartment insurance.

And while firefighters said they didn't know how the fire started, later Winnipeg police said they had detained a few people in connection with the blaze.

"We only had time to grab our cat," James Beaucage said on Saturday, holding a cat carrier containing MJ, as firefighters continued to pour water on the gutted three-storey apartment building.

"All I have is the receiver of our phone that I used to call 911," his wife Jessie Whitaker said, bursting into tears every few minutes.

Winnipeg police said the couple were two of as many as 50 people evacuated from the area.

Police estimated the blaze caused $600,000 in damage.

Whitaker and Beaucage said they heard the building's smoke alarm go off at about 7 a.m. , so Whitaker went out into the third-floor hallway to investigate.

Whitaker said she was greeted by black smoke when she opened the door leading to the front stairwell.

"I ran down the hall, banged on the door across from us to wake the woman and her young kid in there -- I just told her 'get out now' -- and then I told my husband to get the cat," she said.

"Every time the fire alarm goes off it has been nothing. I would call 911, but it would be nothing. This is the first time they had to rescue people."

Whitaker said she and her husband escaped out the rear of the building just minutes before flames several metres high started shooting through the roof of the structure.

"I've lost my ID, my medication -- everything," she said.

Beaucage said they also lost three tickets to a wrestling match coming up next weekend -- which he planned to take his 10-year-old son to -- as well as his son's drum kit which was given as a gift two years ago.

Looking up at the top of the building, he said "that hole in the roof is right across from our apartment."

Deputy fire chief Bill Clark said the building was fully involved in flames when the first firefighters pulled up in front at about 7 a.m.

"We were rescuing people who were hanging out their windows when we showed up," Clark said.

He said firefighters were able to go through the entire building looking for people to evacuate before switching to a defensive attack on the blaze to save nearby buildings.

"There are no fatalities that we know of," Clark said.

"The buildings here are three feet apart, but we have them protected."

Firefighters also evacuated the buildings on either side of the burning building.

Around 10 a.m., the front exterior wall suddenly collapsed into the gutted building with a loud crash.

Clark said about 20 people had been rushed to hospital, including four people in unstable condition, all for injuries related to smoke inhalation. Police said two people who had been in unstable condition were later upgraded to stable.

But it could have been worse.

Getachew Haregewein, who immigrated from Ethiopia last year, said his 11-year-old daughter needs hearing aids to hear.

"If I hadn't been here she would have died," Haregewein said.

"She can't hear anything."

Haregewein said besides his daughter's hearing aids, the family also lost immigration documents and other possessions.

"This sweater I am wearing, somebody gave it to me out here," he said.

"I don't know what I'll do now."

Haregewein's cousin, Ahmedel Gudu, who lives elsewhere in the building, was alerted to the fire by his relative and quickly got out of the building.

"I am alive -- God saved us," Gudu said.

"It's a miracle."

At the nearby Safeway parking lot, area residents and other onlookers gathered to watch firefighters battle the blaze as thick grey smoke billowed and tall flames licked upwards.

Light pieces of blackened wreckage floated down into the parking lot, covering the tops of vehicles.

Inside, people shopped for items while the grocery store's smoke alarm sounded on and off continuously.

A line of displaced residents and firefighters gathered in front of a Salvation Army vehicle to get a hot cup of coffee.

Farther north on Sherbrook, Winnipeg Transit buses were parked, giving displaced residents a place to stay warm.

Winnipeg police spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen confirmed some people were taken into custody just metres away from the fire at an apartment building on Furby Street.

"They could be witnesses. They could be suspects. Who knows? I don't want to speculate," he said.

Michalyshen said the arson strike force has been notified.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Video by Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press

Video submitted by Jody Spriggs

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 15, 2012 A3