‘This was our home’

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This article was published 09/05/2018 (2435 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Marta Gnitecki first saw the flames, she thought her home of 38 years was going to burn to the ground. As the fire began licking its way up the side of her garage and black smoke filled the air, her fear began to rise with it.

“The flames were going up to the roof. I thought it would burn down the house. It was very scary, very scary. Where did it come from? What did they do? It’s burning my house,” said Gnitecki, 80, standing in the doorway of her Lavender Bay home Thursday afternoon.

Gnitecki is one of the last victims of an accused serial arsonist who’s terrorized residents in the west end and north end areas of Winnipeg this month.

River Jacob Parrenas Tavares, 19, has been charged with setting 16 fires from May 1 to May 9, resulting in more than half a million dollars in damages. His alleged arson spree targeted dozens of homes, garages, vehicles, fences and sheds. He is currently a philosophy student at the University of Winnipeg, according to his Facebook page.

One of the homes targeted, on the 600 block of Wellington Avenue, was burned completely to the ground. The ruins were bulldozed last week and, as of Thursday, all that remains where the house once stood is an empty lot.”

While Gnitecki’s home, which her husband built for her in 1980, did not burn to the ground, the garage that served as his workshop was destryoed. Her husband, a carpenter, died eight years ago and the garage was filled with his tools.

In addition, the fire spread to her next door neighbour’s garage, completely caving in the roof and destroying the family’s two vehicles parked inside.

On Thursday, Winnipeg Police Service Const. Jay Murray said more charges could be pending against Tavares. At 11:15 a.m. Wednesday, roughly one hour after the last fire was set, officers noticed a man riding a bicycle near James Carleton Drive and Leila Avenue who matched a description of the suspected arsonist. A search of his belongings led to the seizure of increndiary materials, Murray said. “Everything found on him was flammable and could be set on fire. In this case we do believe it was one person responsible for all of these fires and I wouldn’t say the book is closed on this yet. There are still a number of fires that happened in the City of Winnipeg in the last few days,” Murray said.

The majority of the fires – including the one targeting Gnitecki’s home – were set between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. It is not believed Tavares knew any of the victims. His arrest comes in the middle of the WPS’s arson awareness week. The allegations have not been proven in court and he remains in custody.

“Sometimes you find individuals who are fascinated with fire. They begin to light things on fire until they’re caught, and I think that’s what happened here. It’s not common, but it’s not unusual either,” Murray said.

On Wednesday morning, around 10 a.m., Gnitecki was doing yard work in her front lawn when she noticed smoke rising from behind her home. At first she thought someone had burnt something on a barbecue, but she quickly realized there was too much smoke for that.

“It was very black smoke, going straight up. Then, of course, I saw the flames,” Gnitecki said.

Gnitecki says a passerby called 911 while she went to warn her neighbours, who were at home but hadn’t noticed the fire. By Thursday afternoon, both garages were boarded up, with one garage door ripped off, lying crumpled and burnt in the back lane.

When Gnitecki was told a 19-year-old man had been charged with setting the fire, as well as 15 others, she sighed and shook her head.

“Why? What good does it do for him? What benefit from that? Nothing. Whatever he’s doing he must be sick of mind or something. It’s impossible a right mind person would do that,” she said.

Gnitecki says she’s refused to move out of her home since her husband’s death, because it makes her feel connected to him. She says she sees his fingerprints wherever she looks.

“The whole house is very sentimental. That’s why I don’t want to move out, because everything is his work. Where ever I look, every screw, it’s his work,” she said.

“This was our home. The house, only the shingles and the roof are damaged a bit. But the garage was his workshop and everything was still in there as it was. And now it’s burned. Everything is burned.”

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

@rk_thorpe