Juno Award-nominated musician among residents displaced by Main Street building fire

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This article was published 14/12/2023 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Elise Nadeau thought it was just another false alarm when she heard the blaring noise at about 5 a.m. Wednesday from her residential suite above 611 Main St.

This time, however, there were real flames spreading inside the historic building that houses The Edge Gallery and Urban Art Centre,and multiple residential suites.

“People came out in the hall — we often get false alarms — but there was actual smoke and I went downstairs and I saw the whole right hand corner (of the interior) in flames, it was all going up into the ceiling,” said Nadeau, director of the Edge and a ceramic artist.

She warned others and briefly tried to fight the flames with a fire extinguisher.

“I was overcome by smoke,” said Nadeau. “We all went outside and watched.”

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service crews arrived nearly immediately, Nadeau said, apparently having been at a nearby fire. It took several hours to fully extinguish the blaze.

“I’m devastated, we were just doing so good,” said Nadeau, adding the non-profit organization just got a grant to fix its front door and windows.

She said art classes at the Edge have “been flying off the shelves,” which she’ll need to now cancel, as she does not yet know when the doors will be open again.

“I just want to get back and get cleaning. Thank God, the damage doesn’t look extremely extensive but I don’t know how the (pottery) kilns are. I don’t know if they’re going to work… the ceiling’s trashed,” said Nadeau.

“I only had a brief glimpse, but it looked like a disaster in the studio.”

She said water likely ended up in the building’s basement, where artists rent studio spaces.

“It’s just a bad, bad, bad thing to happen just before Christmas,” said Nadeau. “Everyone’s got their Christmas presents that they’ve made for people (in the building.)”

The building’s owner — Nadeau’s landlord — is dealing with the insurance side of things.

Nadeau said although the building will remain closed for the time being, the Edge will rebound.

“I can’t emphasize how great the community we have is… it’s a really fun place to be,” she said, adding the gallery is raising funds on its website to help recover from the fire.

Nadeau has heard from other tenants the fire may have spread from a possible arson in a refuse bin adjacent to the building, but Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service spokeswoman Erin Madden said Thursday that it was still under investigation.

Nadeau has been displaced, along with her cat Peanut Butter, from her suite in the building and is temporarily staying in a downtown hotel.

The fire displaced 11 other residents, including blues guitarist Billy Joe Green and his roommate Joanne Millard, who fled their apartment above the gallery after Green saw flames crawling up the building’s wall through a window.

“We got out in about three minutes flat,” Green said. “The source of the fire was right below our suite, so we got the brunt of their fire in our apartment.

“There’s a lot of water damage and my guitars got a bit soaked up,” he said.

The three-time Juno Award nominee had 13 guitars in the suite that firefighters were able to retrieve. The instruments and amplifiers he performs with are in storage elsewhere.

The Red Cross has put up Green and Millard in a downtown hotel for three days and the Shoal Lake 40 member said he hopes the First Nation will help with the hotel charges for a few more days while they find a new place to live.

They returned to the suite Thursday to retrieve undamaged clothing. Green said they escaped with only the clothes on their backs, but friends and fans have helped them out after learning about the situation.

“I’m getting a lot of phone calls and a lot of emails and Facebook posts. They’re looking out for me,” he said.

Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art education centre also has a space in 611 Main St., but it is separated by a wall from the Edge. A spokeswoman for that non-profit organization said Wednesday that she believes that organization’s space was not significantly damaged.

— with files from Alan Small

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca