‘I was just trying to get her out and keep her alive’

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This article was published 18/11/2022 (1359 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nancy Beaulieu watched in horror as flames and smoke billowed from the windows of a vacant building across the street from her Selkirk Avenue home — she knew a woman was trapped inside.

“I heard her in there and I came out with my little axe and tried to axe open the door,” Beaulieu said Thursday evening at her Selkirk Avenue home. “We just made a little hole, just enough so she could breathe… I was just trying to get her out and keep her alive.”

It was the second time she’d witnessed a fire at the two-storey structure at 272 Selkirk Ave. in little more than a week.

The building, which was vacated in the summer, is a place where desperate and vulnerable people seek shelter from the cold.

“They must have lit a fire to stay warm and then dozed off… I was watching from my window up here, and I seen all that smoke coming out and then I phoned the fire department,” Beaulieu said.

Firefighters arrived a short time later and pulled the woman from the home. It appeared as though she was barely conscious, Beaulieu said.

“As soon as I saw them get her out of there, that made me feel better.”

Beaulieu, 53, has lived across the street for roughly a year. She said she is frustrated by the frequent fires. She believes the building will be the site of more fires unless it is torn down.

“Too many people are going in there… they are homeless and have nowhere to go.”

The Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Service confirmed first responders arrived on scene around 2:20 p.m.

Paramedics gave the victim emergency treatment before taking her to the hospital in critical condition.

WFPS could not comment on why the victim was inside the building.

“When responding to an emergency, the first priority for WFPS is life safety. The circumstances around why or how a person came to be in a particular building may not be clear,” spokesperson Kristin Cuma said in an email statement.

Hours later, contractors hired by the city boarded up the windows and doors. They said they had sealed up the building in the past after it had been broken into.

“WFPS will order the demolition of a building only if it is required to ensure the safety of the scene for firefighting or rescue efforts, or if it would be unsafe to leave a building in its condition following an incident. In this case, no demolition was required,” Cuma said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca