‘A wonderful human being’

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This article was published 09/07/2016 (2994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A victim of a deadly rooming house fire that killed two people was described Sunday as “a wonderful human being” and a kind-hearted woman who “would have helped anybody.”

“She was very timid and shy — she would never raise her voice,” Anna Vande Kerckhove said of 51-year-old Brenda Campbell, who died early Thursday in the Point Douglas blaze at 186 Austin St. N.

“She was friendly, you could have a conversation with her. She knew a lot of people in the centre.”

“She was a very genuine, lovable person,” Vande Kerckhove said. “She was just a tiny little human being.”

Campbell was one of two people killed in the blaze at 186 Austin St. N., which broke out about 1:40 a.m. Thursday.

Firefighters rushed to the burning three-storey rooming house. The structure was “well involved, and crews hit the exterior with large-volume water lines” before entering, said a spokesman with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service. When inside, firefighters located one man who was already dead. He was later identified by police as John McKinnon Bendon, 61.

Two other people inside the rooming house were taken to hospital and listed in stable condition.

On Sunday evening, Trevor Berg, pastor of Grace Point Church in Point Douglas, devoted much of his service to a discussion of the fire, ensuing media coverage, and community grief. A nephew of one of the victims was invited to speak, but was distraught.

“For me, it was pretty hard — pretty hard to deal with that,” Berg told congregants. “I’ve been in that house, maybe about a month and a half or two months ago… For me it was hard, but that’s just me right? There’s people who are much closer to that that maybe it hurts more.”

Campbell was a staple at the North Point Douglas Women’s Centre, where Vande Kerckhove is a volunteer. Vande Kerckhove said her death would be hard on the community.

“I think it affects people different ways,” she said. “For me, I just can’t seem to get over losing her, because, I mean, I knew her a little bit from coming to the centre. It’s shocking, the way she died. She was innocent. Why should she have had to die in a fire that was really drastic like that?”

‘For me, it was pretty hard — pretty hard to deal with that. I’ve been in that house, maybe about a month-and-a-half or two months ago… For me it was hard, but that’s just me right? There’s people who are much closer to that that maybe it hurts more’– Grace Point Church Pastor Trevor Berg (left)

Vande Kerckhove said Campbell used a cane to walk, and had difficulty with stairs.

“It’s hard to grasp, you know?” she said. “It’s so upsetting to me, to lose a person like that.”

Another congregant, Thomas John George, saw the fire take place. George, who lives nearby, said he was sitting outside when he saw smoke and went to investigate.

“That’s a heck of a thing, to see (the fire),” he said Sunday. George said he had seen Campbell around the church and didn’t know her or McKinnon Bendon well, but the deaths would be hard on his tightly-knit community.

“Everybody knows everybody,” he said.

Another church-goer, Natalie Dyck, also saw the smoke, but doesn’t like to go out at night. She said she went to the site later with the Bear Clan to burn sage in honour of all the victims — the deceased, as well as the people who lost their homes.

“It’s my area,” Dyck said of the emotional event.

In his service, Berg recalled feeling overwhelmed when he learned about the fire, and asked church-goers to share what they knew about its victims.

He also took a moment to critique media coverage of the event, criticising a media narrative he said reduced the area, and its people, to its problems, after reports last week noted the residence was a “problem house.”

“Don’t you know that these are real people?” he said, describing his reaction to the reports. “These are people, who suffered and died in that house. Someone died in that house (that) night, and all we can talk about is their problems, or the problems that happened around them.”

As a roomful of heads nodded, Berg said, “I understand that there were problems… and there were things going on in this house that probably shouldn’t have happened. I understand all that stuff. But in that moment, I don’t really feel like that’s the way to honour these people.”

The Winnipeg Police Service homicide unit is continuing to investigate the incident. Anyone with information is asked to call investigators at 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS (8477).

aidan.geary@freepress.mb.ca