Neighbours evacuate after latest fire at vacant house

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This article was published 04/12/2024 (276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As a vacant home on Young Street went up in flames for the second time, the neighbouring family was awoken by pounding on their windows and smoke filling their home.

Firefighters were at the scene of the boarded-up home on the 400 block of Young Street at around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday. Minutes before, a passerby alerted the next-door neighbours about the flames.

As she collected her husband and daughter, firefighters informed them they had to evacuate.

“(They said) ‘Just five minutes, we’re going to give you. Get out,’” the neighbour, who asked not to be named, said. “And then we were out.”

She was allowed back in Tuesday afternoon, and other than water that had got into the building, she said her home is otherwise undamaged. Cadets and an excavator crew were still on site into the afternoon. The damage next door is so extensive that an emergency demolition is being planned.

It’s not the first time the house has gone up in flames; firefighters battled another blaze in May 2021. The neighbour said the building had been vacant for years and she regularly saw people coming in and out.

Her family has lived in their home for 20 years and she worries it’s getting too dangerous to stay. She’s not sure if vacant homes in the area are the main issue, but said her family has dealt with break-ins.

“For now, I don’t know … I’m thinking that we have to (move). (Another) year here, I don’t think so,” she said. “It’s very hard.”

They’ve had to adapt. After two break-ins, she said her family decided to no longer keep a television in their living room.

“We don’t say anything, it’s OK,” she said. “I don’t want to fight anybody when they’re out.”

Young Street has faced several dangerous fires this year. In March, one person was sent to hospital in unstable condition after an apartment fire and a house fire in September on the street sent one to hospital in critical condition.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca