Daycare connected to fire-damaged apartment shuttered

A Winnipeg mother is scrambling to find care for her autistic son after a fire at a connected Manitoba Housing building shuttered a West Broadway daycare.

The daycare, licenced for 45 children, was forced to lock its doors after a fire at 25 Furby St. sent eight people to hospital early Thursday morning.

Parents were informed about the closure of the Cornish Child Care Centre on the morning of the blaze. When Tara Gogal saw the extensive damage to the building, she knew her three-year-old son Finn would not be able to go back any time soon.

“I said to myself: ‘it’s impossible this daycare is opening,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine the amount of damage.”

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service were called to the three-storey apartment building shortly after 3 a.m. Crews arrived to find heavy smoke pouring from the building and helped evacuate residents while others escaped on their own. The fire was declared under control at 4:20 a.m.

Paramedics assessed nine people at the scene. Eight were taken to hospital, including one in unstable condition. A firefighter was also treated for a minor injury.

Gogal, who lives nearby, said the fire happened in a unit known to be problematic — with drug use and “shady behaviour” that she witnessed firsthand.

“My head starts spinning,” she said. Adding later: “What if the kids were in there?”

The next day, she got an email from the daycare saying she should look elsewhere for child care. Her son is already starting to regress, she said.

“He keeps asking me for ‘daycare,’” she said, noting he’s gone to Cornish since he was a baby.

Besides disrupting their daily routine, the fire has also derailed integral care put in place for Finn by the daycare and funded by the government.

“He needs full-time, one-on-one support… I can’t just call a babysitter. I can’t just find another daycare.”

“He needs full-time, one-on-one support,” Gogal said. “I can’t just call a babysitter. I can’t just find another daycare.”

A program through St. Amant, which supports people living with developmental disabilities, was to help Finn integrate into school this fall. That’s in limbo now, too.

“This was supposed to start in September at Cornish daycare,” she said. “It’s now July and we have no daycare.”

Reached by phone Saturday, James Lee, president of the Cornish Child Care Centre board, said it wouldn’t be appropriate to speak about the fire, saying any public remarks would have to be made by the board. He offered no comment about the status of the daycare of when it might reopen.

An automatic email response from the daycare noted it will not be able to accept new children “for the next few months.”

Gogal said she and other parents brought numerous concerns to day care administration, who raised them with officials in the building and Manitoba Housing. She said they were never addressed. Had they been looked after, there’s “no doubt” the fire would have been prevented, she said.

“I just don’t understand where they draw the line and what gets you evicted,” she said.

Things have gotten worse over the years at the complex, Gogal said. There were few issues when she took her eldest daughter to the daycare in the past.

“I just don’t understand where they draw the line and what gets you evicted.”

In late 2023, Winnipeg police shot and killed a man after he barricaded himself inside a fifth-floor suite with a female hostage at the Furby apartment.

Multiple people who lived in the building also told the Free Press that the suite where the fire started was known for drug use.

The fire is at least the third blaze in a Manitoba Housing complex this year reportedly sparked by drug use.

An interview request with Housing Minister Bernadette Smith was not accommodated Saturday, but a provincial spokesperson said in a statement: “We are ensuring that families affected by the current closure of the child-care centre are supported in finding alternative care options and the supports they need as we navigate this developing situation.”

Gogal said she’s received zero guidance and is still waiting on next steps.

“My main concern is what are we doing to prevent this from happening again?”

morgan.modjeski@freepress.mb.ca