Cleanup continues after more suspicious fires in Fort Rouge

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This article was published 26/07/2011 (5213 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The latest arson strike in Crescentwood Fort Rouge was the worst yet, residents said Tuesday.

One woman escaped her burning home and it was her screams that split the silence overnight and woke up her neighbourhood, even before the flames lit the sky red and fire crews arrived to fight the blaze.

The next several hours were chaotic, confusing and panicky, neighbours reported the next morning.

There were blaring sirens, fire trucks, police cruisers, flashing lights and red flames that shot higher than the old trees that line the boulevards in this part of Winnipeg. Neighhbours turned out of their houses in droves. Some said 50 or more were milling around most of the night, most of them from Hector, Carter and the streets nearby.

Some 20 police officers were dispatched to the scene; residents counted them.

By morning, charred studs, melted siding and blackened stucco were the focus of an investigation by the arson strike force.

Police said Tuesday that a house and garage in the 800 block of Hector Avenue was set ablaze just after 1 a.m. Damage there is estimated at $240,000. Three other homes on Hector were also damaged by fire, including a garage and shed, while two homes on nearby Carter Avenue also had damage. A fire official put the total damage estimate on the other five addresses at about $34,000.

No one was injured but many neighbours said they spent a sleepless night. The woman who escaped the blaze was too shaken up to talk about what happened, said one neighbour who took her in. The fire killed the woman’s pets, a dog and two cats.

The fires last night were the latest in a series of targeted arson strikes, on garages in the Crescentwood Fort Rouge. There have been 11 other fires within a radius of about half a dozen blocks in the last three months. Fire engines and sirens, once rarely heard, are so routine, residents say they can almost set their clocks by them.

This time, however, is the first time the fires leaped from one structure to another and another.

“The heat was intense,” said Ed Thomas, whose house is two doors down from where the fire started in a garage. The houses are built close together in the area, making flames especially dangerous.

The heat melted the plastic siding on the sunroom of Thomas’s house but he said the damage was slight. It was the pets he mourned. “The dog’s name was Snap.” Thomas’ dog was Snap’s playmate.

The ferocity of the flames surprised him.

“With all the firefighters here, I didn’t think it would go any further. It was two garages. Then it caught the house and the flames went up, 10 feet higher,” Thomas said.

One distraught resident spoke to the Free Press as the firefighters battled the blaze. “It’s the scariest moment of my life,” said the woman, standing out in the street amidst the emergency equipment.

“Why haven’t these people been caught? Burning people’s property, with no motive… it’s disgusting. I think (police cadet patrols) are a good idea. Something needs to be cone. Chances are they won’t be caught if nobody catches them in the act.”