Main Street A&W one casualty in flurry of weekend fires

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This article was published 11/02/2019 (2498 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg firefighters battled five blazes in bitter weather over the weekend and into Monday morning, including the destruction of a fast food restaurant and the partial evacuation of a 10-storey apartment building.

The first was a house fire called in Sunday, just after 3 p.m., on the 100 block of Hamilton Meadows Drive that took three hours to bring under control.

Images of plumes of smoke slicing melted ice crystals in the air were captured on social media before darkness fell. Fire and smoke also drove Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service crews out of the home initially, forcing them to fight the fire from outside.

In total, 11 fire crews were called in; they kept fire from spreading to neighbouring homes and were able to move back inside the house with an offensive assault that knocked the fire down three hours later.

No one was injured, and occupants got themselves out safely before fire crews arrived on the scene, the City of Winnipeg said Monday.

On Sunday, 18 crews were called in to fight a blaze at the A&W chain restaurant on Main Street at the corner of Inkster Boulevard. The first call to the 1400 block of Main came in at 5:17 p.m.

The fire quickly spread to send flames shooting from the roof. No one was injured, and traffic in the area was restricted for hours.

Crews extinguished the final hot spots and remained on the scene until 2:30 a.m. Monday. Heavy machinery was called in to demolish the gutted structure.

A spokesman for the fast food chain said the franchise owner planned to rebuild on the same location.

“I’ve seen the pictures and it virtually burnt to the ground. The franchise owner really wants to rebuild and there are a number of steps he’ll have to go through, but he wants to get it… open this year,” Tom Newitt said Monday from A&W Canada head office in Vancouver.

About the same time crews were converging on the A&W, a car fire on the 600 block of Maryland Street spread to the surrounding garage. Crews had both contained minutes later, at about 5:35 p.m.

The same general area of the city has been the site of at least two other fires in recent.

On Jan. 13, a fire broke out in an apartment block at Ellice Avenue and Maryland Street. Firefighters found one person inside who was rushed to hospital in critical condition and later upgraded to stable.

On Jan. 14, a blaze in a three-story building on the 400 block of Maryland forced more than 40 people to flee.

On Sunday, WFPS crews were called a strip mall fire on the 900 block of Portage Avenue. The mall’s sprinkler system help keep the fire from spreading until crews arrived and doused it, 15 minutes after the first alarm.

The fifth fire of the weekend came early Monday, at a 10-storey apartment block in south River Heights.

Fire crews evacuated two of the 10 floors of the structure on the 1300 block of Taylor Avenue, across from the Pan Am Medical Clinic.

Residents took shelter in Winnipeg Transit buses, brought to the scene shortly after the alarm went out at 7:08 a.m.

The first crews on the scene reported flames shooting out from a ninth-storey balcony and called in a second alarm for more help. They were able to contain the fire to a single suite, but some others also experienced smoke and water damage.

The WFPS said Monday it was still investigating four of the fires. It issued a statement saying a malfunctioning fan caused the strip mall fire.

No damage estimates were released Monday.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca