Three strikes for Flora Avenue fire hazard

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This article was published 24/12/2024 (256 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When the vacant building next to Andres Valencio’s North End home is quiet, the neighbourhood is safe.

When squatters come in, fires start; the third blaze in a month broke out Monday.

“This year’s been crazy. How many times can a building get burned in one year, or even in a month?” he said.

He was awakened by the sound of fire trucks and chainsaws Monday morning after a fire struck 612 Flora Ave. It had been damaged in fires on Nov. 9 and Nov. 26. Crews launched an interior attack and the fire was put out an hour later. Valencio’s home wasn’t affected.

The community, however, has been impacted by the burnt-out building, he said.

When the building became uninhabitable due to fires, it became a hub for criminal activity and break-ins.

He wants it torn down for the sake of his neighbours.

“You have to tear it down. That’s my take on it… For me, it’s for the safety of everyone living here quietly.”

This year, 182 vacant buildings caught fire from January to September (the most recent month documented). That’s 26 more than all of 2023 and the highest number in at least six years. In 2018, there were just 58 vacant building fires.

Emergency demolition is only used in “situations where it is required during a response to allow firefighters to fully extinguish the fire, or where there is a risk of collapse or injury to nearby people or buildings during the incident or once WFPS departs,” a Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service spokesperson said.

In this year’s incidents, 799 fires were deemed to have been “deliberately ignited under circumstances in which the person knows that the fire should not be ignited.”

Mynarski ward Coun. Ross Eadie said he’d heard about the Flora Avenue fire. In the last few weeks, there have been a higher-than-usual number of fires in the North End, he said.

“If it is an arsonist, hopefully, they can catch that person as soon as possible,” he said.

The WFPS first began billing some owners of vacant buildings in March 2023 for the cost of extinguishing fires on their properties. The average fee was $26,000 per property.

In October, city council’s executive policy committee voted to change the fines to $10,000 for the first fire, $20,000 for the second, $30,000 for the third and $50,000 for the fourth.

The city is able to clean up rubble after a fire and bill the owner via property taxes, but the Mynarski councilor said the city struggles to get building owners to pay up, and can’t afford to pay for contractors to take care of the high number of burnt-out homes without getting repaid.

“The city won’t get the money back,” he said. “The problem is, they put it on their property tax bills. If it’s owned by somebody who has many rentals, they’ll probably pay it. The reality is, we could be doing more, but there’s not enough money in the (city’s) budget.”

Eadie said he and fellow councillor Cindy Gilroy are working with a University of Winnipeg researcher to recommend how best to tackle the underlying issues that lead to vacant homes in their wards.

“There are people who are not making enough money or have enough opportunity to take care of things,” Eadie said.

“The cheapest rents… are in the inner city, where (owners) can’t get the kind of rents (they) need to pay for the renovations that a house may need.”

In total, 684 properties are subject to Winnipeg’s vacant buildings bylaw, including 526 residential and 158 commercial buildings.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca