Drug use cited in downtown blaze

The partner of a man who died in a fire inside a Manitoba Housing complex last month believes his death was an accident, resulting from him falling asleep while using drugs.

Corinne Baxter said she thinks her boyfriend Tristan Fraser-Smith was alone inside her suite on the eighth floor of 444 Kennedy St. on April 20 when a fire started in the unit, reportedly causing an explosion and forcing dozens of tenants to flee the 16-storey apartment complex.

“It really hurts my heart. It feels like it’s going to explode when I think about it,” Baxter said in an interview Monday.

“The pain doesn’t seem to stop or go away.”

The Winnipeg Police Service said one person died in the blaze, but has not provided any details about their identity. The Free Press has independently confirmed the victim was Fraser-Smith.

Winnipeg police said the major crimes unit is investigating, but no updates were available Monday. A police spokesperson noted the department does not publicly identify fire victims unless investigators determine they died as a result of a criminal act.

The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service has not commented on a potential cause for the fire.

Baxter said her boyfriend recently celebrated his 39th birthday and was born in Bermuda. He had been living in Winnipeg for at least 15 years and the pair began dating in September, she said.

She described him as intelligent and kind.

“We got to know each other pretty quickly. It’s hard to explain, but when I first met him I felt like I’d known him my whole life,” Baxter said.

“I really just think it was a freak accident.”

Fraser-Smith struggled with addictions and was known to use the substance “down,” Baxter said. The slang term is typically used to describe street drugs that contain fentanyl and other opioids.

She said he often used a torch-style lighter and had previously fallen unconscious after consuming drugs, causing burns on her mattress and elsewhere.

The apartment contained numerous aerosol cans, butane, propane and a jerry can filled with gasoline, which could have resulted in an explosion that other tenants reported hearing at the time of the fire, Baxter said.

Baxter was in a friend’s suite on the fifth floor of the building when the fire broke out. Another tenant warned her the blaze started in her unit, but she was unable to go there because fire crews had already arrived, she said.

“It didn’t occur to me that something like that would happen when I wasn’t there,” she said Monday. “I really just think it was a freak accident.”

Baxter said she felt compelled to speak out publicly in response to rumours circulating in the building, including speculation that the fire was the result of criminal activity or foul play.

She has not spoken with police investigators, she said.

Last month, a provincial spokesperson confirmed the fire happened on the eighth floor and affected 58 units from the third to eighth floors. The displaced tenants were moved to hotel rooms while efforts were underway to fix suites damaged by smoke, water and fire.

A provincial spokesperson said Monday all of the affected apartments remain under repair. Some of the suites suffered extensive damage, and tenants will be relocated to other available units. Meanwhile, other suites are expected to be ready for occupancy later this week.

Baxter said Manitoba Housing could be seeking to fine her as much as $25,000 in connection with the fire. She has been evicted from her apartment and has “lost everything.”

She said she repeatedly warned housing officials about safety concerns in the building and feels she is being treated unfairly.

The spokesperson did not confirm whether Manitoba Housing is seeking to fine Baxter, saying the department cannot comment on tenant lease agreements.

Security concerns in building: tenants

Numerous tenants who spoke with the Free Press said the building is plagued by drug use, drug dealing, sex work and gangs. Entrances are often unsecured and issues are compounded by an array of tenants with addictions and mental health challenges.

The same has been said of other social housing buildings in Winnipeg, including at a Manitoba Housing complex at 145 Powers St., where home-care workers are now refusing to enter.

“The safety issues that are happening on the streets don’t just disappear when you move into a building,” said Christina Maes Nino, executive director of the Manitoba Non-Profit Housing Association. “The level of support that people need is higher than the resources allow right now.”

Maes Nino said many people who move into social housing are vulnerable to exploitation, particularly those who are leaving homelessness.

While there is a great sense of pressure to get them into housing, there is little consideration for the ongoing resources required to set them up for success, she said.

Conversations over how to improve safety are ongoing within the sector. Some fear recent security concerns will cause policy-makers and the public to turn their backs on the provincial government’s Your Way Home strategy, which prioritizes a housing-first approach, Maes Nino said.

“If we don’t adequately support people, we are going to end up with cynical people feeling like there isn’t a solution to homelessness, when actually, there is a solution. We are just not resourcing it enough,” Maes Nino said.

“There has become a connection in peoples’ minds between safety problems and homelessness and those two things are not the same.”

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca