Two people dead in McDermot Avenue duplex blaze

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This article was published 21/12/2023 (649 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two people are dead after a fire in a West Alexander neighbourhood duplex during a taxing night and morning that saw Winnipeg firefighters rush to seven separate blazes.

The fire at a three-storey, six-suite building at 521-525 McDermot Ave. was reported at 9:35 a.m. Thursday and took about a half-hour to get under control.

The blaze was largely in the third-floor suite and roof of 521 McDermot, where firefighters found the two bodies, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service acting platoon chief Dick Vlaming told reporters at the scene.

“We did have two fatalities, which I’m sorry to say, especially around Christmas time,” Vlaming said.

“When the fire department comes across fatalities, it’s always suspicious…. We give it to the police and… our fire investigator and the police will determine if it is (suspicious).”

Vlaming said details — including age, gender and whether the deceased were tenants of the building — were still being investigated.

A WFPS fire investigator, Winnipeg police and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner are probing the deaths and working to identify the victims.

The cause of the fire was not yet known.

Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen said police are monitoring the McDermot Avenue fire investigation.

“As far as circumstances or whether or not there’s any criminality associated to the fire — that’s something that we’re, at this point, not aware of,” Michalyshen said.

“This may or may not be a police investigation, but we are aware and monitoring and will take over certain components of that investigation, should we need to.”

WFPS spokeswoman Erin Madden said 12 other people were found deceased following fires in the city in 2023, but noted their causes of death have also not yet been confirmed.

McDermot Avenue was closed between Juno and Isabel streets due to emergency services’ efforts, but the street was cleared by about noon.

About 10 tenants of the building evacuated and sat on a Winnipeg Transit bus as city social services workers helped them find a place to stay. Four of the tenants had to be helped out by firefighters, Vlaming said.

Among those displaced are Colleen Sumner and her brother, who lived in the third-floor suite of 525 McDermot, adjacent to the suite that burned.

Sumner stood down the street Thursday morning, keeping her cat Spotty warm in her jacket, as she waited for social services workers to get her to temporary lodgings in a hotel.

“I’m depressed,” said the 61-year-old, who also had a friend from out of town staying with her.

“We were just waking up, I was going to boil some water and have coffee.”

Sumner smelled something odd, then she heard a man shouting “fire,” before she and others rushed from the building.

She said she did not know the tenants in the suite that burned, but she often heard people loudly coming and going at all hours of the day and night.

The fire was one of seven in the city that began just before midnight. About 65 people have been displaced by the fires, WFPS said.

“We’ve been really, really taxed, our dispatch has just been amazing,” said Vlaming.

The first began in a fourplex on the 300 block of Manitoba Avenue at about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, where firefighters got inside and had the fire under control about 20 minutes later. The blaze was contained to one suite, but others were damaged by water, so the building’s tenants are among the displaced.

At about 11:45 p.m., other WFPS crews were called to a vacant home burning on the 600 block of Pritchard Avenue, where they found a small fire they quickly doused.

Firefighters raced to the 100 block of Selkirk Avenue at about 4:4o a.m., where they found two garages engulfed in smoke and flames, before the fire spread to a neighbouring duplex.

A duplex resident had to be hospitalized in stable condition, while others were left temporarily homeless.

Then, at about 8:20 a.m., crews were called to a garage fire on the 600 block of Furby Street, which they quickly doused. Minutes later, an alarm went off at a high-rise tower at 20 Fort St., which turned out to be a fire in a garbage bin in the parkade.

The last fire of the morning was called in at 10:20 a.m. at a three-storey hotel on the 700 block of Main Street, where firefighters found heavy smoke before extinguishing the fire. Occupants escaped on their own.

WFPS spokeswoman Madden said all of the fires are still being investigated.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca