Explosion forces residents to evacuate Kennedy Street Manitoba Housing complex

Residents of an inner-city high-rise say they were forced to evacuate Monday afternoon after explosions blew out a window on the eighth floor.

Darrell Klassen, who lives on the top floor of the 16-storey Manitoba Housing apartment complex at 444 Kennedy St., said he heard several blasts before noticing the smell of smoke.

“The elevators were shut down, so we had to take the stairwells,” Klassen said. “Both stairwells were full of smoke, so I had to mask up and put a wet cloth over my face.”

Klassen said the incident marks the seventh fire in as many years, adding that many are linked to drug activity.

“People are getting evicted, so they start a fire,” he said. “It’s the transients. We have good people living here still. There are seniors that need home care. They’re not going to get that now because this is all shut down.”

He added that he contacted Manitoba’s Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith, urging her to see the conditions first-hand. He said a staffer he spoke with said they would forward his message up the chain.

Multiple fire trucks, along with several ambulances and police vehicles were at the scene.

Winnipeg police confirmed officers responded to the building but did not provide further details. The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service did not immediately return a request for comment.

A Winnipeg Transit bus was at the scene for residents.

Smoke from the fire left a heavy stain on the building’s exterior, stretching several floors above the shattered window.

Cari LaRiviere, a seventh-floor resident, said she had been in the lounge when the alarms began to sound.

“It was loud,” she said. “Scared the crap out of me.”

LaRiviere said the incident triggered a full evacuation — something she had not experienced before.

“We’re so used to it,” she said. “The alarms go off daily. The place is a psychiatric ward. It’s ridiculous the people that are living here, the drugs, the mental-health issues. It’s not a nice place to live.”

She added that while conditions improved for about a year after a management change — following what she described as seven years of “hell” — problems have since returned.

“But the gangs are coming in, the drugs are back in,” she said.

Joseph, who declined to give his last name, said he has lived in the building since the early 2000s and raised concerns about ventilation issues.

“We’re just numbers in this place,” the man said. “There are people that smoke crack, meth. The smell goes all through the walls. It stinks. People smoke in the hallways. But there’s no air circulation. I’ve made 10 complaints.”

William Anderson, a third-floor resident who uses a wheelchair, said he did not hear the explosion before being escorted out.

“It scares me because I don’t know what is going to happen next,” he said, adding he’s seen guns and machetes in the building in the past.

— With files from Ruth Bonneville

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca