One person critical after fire in River Avenue apartment

One person was taken to hospital in critical condition after fire broke out at a River Avenue apartment building.

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service crews were sent to the three-storey building at 166 River Ave.; initial reports suggested people may be trapped in the building, a city news release said Wednesday.

Crews entered the building and had the fire under control shortly after 7 p.m. One person was found in the suite where the fire started and was taken to hospital.

“Everything was full of smoke,” said a tenant who didn’t want her name published. “It was unbreathable. It was the longest time that it took me to get from my unit to the stairs.”

She said the suite where the fire took place was regularly the scene of fights and arguments that would spill out into the hall. On Tuesday morning, she said police responded to the suite and kicked in the door. After 6 p.m., she heard the fire alarm and when she looked out her door, she saw the apartment on fire.

“I saw a woman with a background that was completely in flames and then she just turned and said: ‘Oh my God.’”

The tenant said it seemed as though the woman was not in her right mind, saying after others evacuated, the woman was located 10 to 15 minutes later by fire crews and “she was not conscious.”

She said she watched as fire crews worked to revive the woman, who was taken to hospital.

The Winnipeg Police Service did not respond to a request for comment. The WFPS said there were no updates in relation to the blaze.

The woman said tenants are not allowed in the building and must find their own accommodation.

Staying with her boyfriend, the tenant called the situation “unfair” as she feels had there been action on concerns she raised earlier, the fire may have been prevented.

“The response has not been satisfactory at all,” she said, claiming problems at the suite have been escalating for months.

The Free Press reached out to Dawson Properties, which owns the building, but a response was not immediately received.

Nick Kasper, president of the United Firefighters of Winnipeg, which represents firefighters, said Winnipeg is in the midst of a fire crisis, as the city has logged 13 fire-connected fatalities so far this year.

He said the UFFW has been sounding the alarm over the lack of resources around education and prevention within the service, saying while he can’t speak to this fire specifically, he said the people most impacted by fires in the city are Winnipeg’s most vulnerable.

“It’s tragic,” he said, offering his thoughts to the person hurt. “But it’s frustrating … what else needs to happen before governments take action?”

“Winnipeggers are dying,” he added.

An interview request Tuesday was not accommodated, but in a previous interview, WFPS Deputy Chief Scott Wilkinson said the service is doing more work around education and prevention, but said many of these fires go beyond the WFPS and are rooted in societal issues that need government response.

“We spend a lot of time with public education and fire prevention activities, but the significant majority of these fires that we’re seeing so far this year — and in other years — are due to issues that are beyond normal fire prevention and education,” he said.

“They’re often rooted in poverty, mental health issues and very commonly, they involve substance use and abuse for the cause of fires. That’s where the real tragedy lies.”

morgan.modjeski@freepress.mb.ca