Fire destroys Falcon Lake cottage formerly owned by Nygard By: Erik Pindera Posted: 12:08 PM CDT Wednesday, May. 21, 2025 Last Modified: 5:45 PM CDT Wednesday, May. 21, 2025 Updates

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FALCON LAKE — The opulent cottage owned by fashion mogul Peter Nygard before he was hit with sex charges and his financial empire disintegrated has burned to the ground.

Officials are investigating the blaze that gutted the Falcon Lake cabin formerly owned by the convicted sex predator.

RCMP were contacted about the fire at the property on Block 11 at 8:50 p.m. Tuesday and found the cabin engulfed in flames.

Manitoba RCMP spokesman Sgt. Paul Manaigre said the blaze is unrelated to area wildfires. He said it’s “quite possible” the fire was intentionally set, but no cause had been confirmed.

“We’ll have to wait back to hear from (the fire commissioner) if they’re able to determine a cause,” Manaigre said Wednesday.

The local fire department extinguished the blaze, with help from the provincial wildfire service, RCMP said.

No injuries were reported.

Falcon Lake, along with the rest of Whiteshell Provincial Park, was closed at the time of the blaze after provincial officials ordered everyone out May 13 owing to a wildfire along the Manitoba-Ontario border.

Residents, seasonal users and business owners in Falcon Lake and Barren Lake were allowed to return as of 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Real estate agent Daniel Walker, who owns Whiteshell Properties and a number of other businesses with his wife in Falcon Lake, said the gutted cabin was owned by Nygard before it was sold several years ago.

The current owner used it seasonally and contractors had been renovating it for the past year, said Walker.

Walker has a camera on a dock that’s across the lake from the property, which he livestreams on his real estate website.

The camera captured the orange glow of the flames from a distance on Tuesday night. About two thousand people watched the property burn, said Walker.

“The firefighter crew were able to extinguish it quickly and really saved the day,” he said.

He and his wife, who were evacuated from the park, plan to return to Falcon Lake Thursday.

“We’re business owners so we’ve got a little bit of stuff to bring out,” he said.

Walker said the fire is suspicious, given that only emergency officials were supposed to be in the park at the time.

On Wednesday morning, two conservation officers stood watch at the edge of the scorched property, which is at the end of a quiet cove, as they guarded the taped-off driveway.

Only the blackened brickwork remained standing. Nearby, charred timber and twisted debris were heaped in a pile. A fire commissioner’s truck was parked in the driveway.

Nygard, 83, was given an 11-year sentence by an Ontario judge last September for sexually assaulting four women at his Toronto corporate headquarters from the late 1980s to the mid-2000s.

He is set to stand trial in Winnipeg in December over allegations he sexually assaulted and forcibly confined a 20-year-old woman in 1993 at his former corporate headquarters in the city.

Nygard is awaiting court proceedings for historical sex assault and forcible confinement charges in Quebec and extradition to the United States, where he has been charged with sex trafficking and racketeering.

The women’s clothing company he started in Winnipeg in 1967 became an international brand and spiralled into financial ruin once he became a target of law enforcement.

RCMP asked anyone with information about the fire to call the Falcon Lake detachment at 204-349-2588 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).

— with files from Scott Billeck

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca