Five-block stretch of Main leaves trail of destruction Thirty-nine fires in four years By: Tyler Searle Posted: 6:37 PM CST Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025

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Winnipeg fire crews have responded to at least 39 blazes along a five-block stretch of Main Street in just over four years, including some that have reduced buildings to rubble or left vacant lots in their wake.

A review of Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service news releases dating back to January 2020 showed the rash of fires has spanned from the 500- to 1000-blocks of Main Street, encompassing a swath of the inner city.

That area saw eight fires last year and 17 in 2023. There were five fires there in 2022, four in 2021 and three in 2020, according to the releases.

The 700 and 800 blocks alone account for 64 per cent (25) of the fire calls during that period, including a massive blaze Wednesday that engulfed the former Sutherland Hotel.

By Thursday all that remained of the more than century-old structure was a pile of charred rubble at 785 Main St. It joins other prominent buildings that have burned between those two blocks in recent years:

Surplus Direct fire

Three businesses were leveled by a fire at 843 Main St. on Feb. 11, 2023. The blaze was initially reported at Surplus Direct, a discount retailer that shared walls and a roof with Top Pro Roofing Ltd. (847 Main St.) and Lord Selkirk Furniture (835 Main St.).

A fourth adjoining apartment building on the corner of Jarvis Avenue and Main Street was also evacuated and suffered damage from smoke.

The fire was so large it required a response from roughly 30 per cent of the 167 WFPS members who were on duty at the time, assistant chief Scott Wilkinson told reporters on scene. Three firefighters suffered minor injuries and were sent to hospital in stable condition.

The trio of businesses were reduced to a blackened heap that remained for months, causing neighbourhood residents to complain of dumping, scavenging and rodents. The last of the debris was not cleared until October, owing to concerns over asbestos.

R. Bell Block fire

One week after the Surplus Direct fire, the R. Bell Block — a two storey, multi-use apartment building at 813 Main St. located steps away from the Sutherland — was burned beyond repair. It remains standing as a fire-ravaged husk.

The building contained eight suites and was fully occupied at the time of the fire on March 4, 2023. Roughly a dozen occupants self-evacuated, and first-responders treated two or three people for injuries. One person was sent to hospital in stable condition, WFPS said at the time.

“You basically have to harden yourself to live in an area like this … Instead of Main Street, we should start calling it Fire Street,” area resident Steve Pinter told the Free Press at the time.

Vacant commercial building

A vacant, multi-unit commercial building that stretches from 881 Main St. to 893 Main St. has burned at least three times over the past four years, subsequently damaging the adjacent Holy Ascension Greek Orthodox Church on Euclid Avenue.

The single-storey building has been empty and boarded since Oct. 24, 2021, when it was damaged in a large blaze.

The flames were so intense, firefighters were forced to flee from inside the building and launch a defensive attack from outside. One firefighter was sent to hospital in stable condition due to injuries sustained during the fire, WFPS said at the time.

The roof of the building caved in and the city said it would bring heavy equipment to the structure due to the risk of collapse, but the building remains standing. It burned again the following year in July, and in November 2023.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.