Burned up over $105K in firefighting costs

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This article was published 10/01/2024 (645 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Maria Suzuki considers herself a good property owner, but the City of Winnipeg begs to differ — and has charged her more than $100,000 for the cost of fighting three blazes at the vacant house she owns.

Suzuki, who is spending about $50,000 to renovate the fire-gutted house at 456 Elgin Ave., said she’s not a slum landlord.

She has tried unsuccessfully to fix up the building, which has been hit by arson after being repeatedly broken into.

“This building has been targeted,” Suzuki said on Wednesday, noting it doesn’t help that the house next door is also boarded up, with a portion of the roof gone due to fire.

“Every time they break a door or window, I repair it and it costs me thousands of dollars. I’m putting about $50,000 into it so far this time and, even before that, I spent $20,000 on it, but then something happens again.”

Suzuki has been hit with three bills from the city that add up to $105,218.36.

Faced with skyrocketing firefighting costs because of increasing incidents of arson in vacant and derelict buildings, the city last year decided to make certain property owners liable for part of the cost.

The proposed charges include a $340 hourly attendance fee for the district chief and driver, and a $1,357 hourly fee for the cost of a pumper, aerial ladder and rescue vehicles.

A city report at the time said two hours of fighting a residential structural fire costs the city almost $15,000.

If the bylaw had been in place from Jan. 1, 2019 to Dec. 31, 2021, the city estimated building owners would have been on the hook for $1.4 million.

Suzuki insisted the house she owns had been empty only for a short time. The tenants had moved out and she had hired workers to conduct repairs. That’s when the first break-in occurred. Before long, even though the house was boarded up, squatters had been inside eight to 10 times.

Then the fires started, the first in January 2023, followed by others in May, July and August.

“The first was before this bylaw came in,” she said. “But then the bills started coming in about a month after the other ones.

“I thought I could appeal it like a parking ticket but after calling 311 (and) the corporate finance branch I talked to John.”

John is John Prystanski, a lawyer and a former city councillor.

Prystanski said he has written to Mayor Scott Gillingham because he sees problems with the wording of the bylaw, including when the city details how much to charge per unit.

He said while the city may believe unit refers to a fire crew, the only definition of unit in the bylaw is for a residential unit. He said at most Suzuki should pay $2,601 per blaze.

“She is trying to make a real change in the area and being responsible, but she is being caught in the middle,” Prystanski said.

“As a past city councillor, I understand the problems city councillors are facing. But I’m also an inner-city resident and, while we appreciate what councillors are trying to do, right now it is not working.”

Coun. Sherri Rollins, who as chair of the property and development committee pushed for last year’s bylaw changes, said she continues to favour the “tough as nails” approach to root out bad property owners.

Rollins, who said she couldn’t talk about individual situations, admitted not all property owners receive bills.

“Only a very small percentage are, in fact, being brought into the ‘tough as nails’ approach,” she said, noting the bylaw tells property owners the proper way to secure a building with plywood and fencing.

“We had 125 fires last year. It grew from 84 (a year earlier). There are public safety reasons why we did this.

“I’m still watching to see if we’re targeting the right owners to see if we have a decrease in derelict buildings and fires.”

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service spokeswoman Erin Madden said the city began billing vacant property owners for the cost of firefighting last year after city council approved the changes in the vacant buildings bylaw.

In May 2023, two months into the program, the city said bills had been sent to nine property owners.

One owner was slapped with nearly $104,000 in bills.

Madden said the city can’t provide an update on the total number of charges issued or how much has been paid by property owners since the bylaw took effect.

“Over the past year, we have received feedback on this practice,” Madden said on Wednesday. “WFPS has identified some opportunities to improve the vacant billing process to ensure the program is meeting its goal of decreasing vacant building fires.

“In the coming months, WFPS and licensing and bylaw enforcement will bring a report forward to city council with proposed adjustments to the process.”

In 2023, Winnipeg fire crews battled blazes in 125 vacant buildings, as of Nov. 16.

That’s a big jump from the 84 fires in 2022, 64 in 2021, and 41 in 2020.

As for Suzuki, when the renovations are complete she said she hopes to sell the house instead of renting it out.

“It is a five-bedroom house,” she said. “Maybe a large family can buy the house and have it as their forever home.

“There are lots of people who need a house.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca