Woman, granddaughter killed in Point Douglas fire police investigating as possible arson By: Alexandra Paul and Ryan Thorpe Posted: 12:00 PM CDT Friday, Oct. 26, 2018 Last Modified: 6:00 PM CDT Friday, Oct. 26, 2018 Updates

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A grandmother and granddaughter are dead, and two other family members are in hospital, after a Point Douglas home was destroyed in an overnight blaze that area residents think was deliberately set.

It was one of five fires that broke out in the neighbourhood early Friday morning, but police are remaining tight-lipped about whether they’re all connected.

A suspect is in custody for four small fires set not far from, and not long after, the fatal Price Edward Street blaze. However, police have not yet determined if the house fire was an act of arson and — if it was — whether the suspect in custody is responsible.

The fatal fire is being investigated by the Winnipeg Police Service major crimes unit. Const. Jay Murray told reporters Friday that determining whether the fires are linked will be a focus of the investigation.

“It’s certainly something they’ll look at. That’s part of police work. You try to identify similar crimes in the area and establish a suspect,” Murray said.

“If this fire ultimately does go that route and it’s deemed suspicious, we certainly have a lead to work off. But at this time we haven’t determined the cause of the fire.”

The two-storey house at 68 Prince Edward St. was fully engulfed in flames – with smoke pouring out every window and door – by the time fire crews arrived at 2:25 a.m. It was realized it was not safe for firefighters to enter the home, even though there were two people still inside.

“That’s one of the difficult parts of being an incident commander…. We can’t endanger our own crews on a situation that may already be lost,” said Ihor Holowczynsky, assistant chief of fire rescue operations.

A 64-year-old woman and a 17-year-old boy — both family members of the deceased — escaped from the burning house by jumping from a window before emergency personnel arrived. They were rushed to hospital and are in stable condition.

Area residents identified the two fatalities as grandmother Maria Klaric and her 11-year-old granddaughter, who lives across the street with her mother, one of Klaric’s daughters.

Neighbours called 911 after being awoken in the middle of the night by screaming coming from the backyard of the house around 2 a.m.

“My parents looked out the back window and they noticed there was a fire because everything was orange,” said one woman, who witnessed the events of the night.

“We all came running out. There (were) people yelling: ‘We need a ladder.’ So I went running to the neighbour’s house, to the backyard, because I know they have a ladder. Like, we all know each other. We’re a community here.”

She explained that desperate residents tried in vain to rescue the grandmother and little girl trapped inside the burning home. As the flames intensified and the heat drove them back, their despair grew as the horrific reality of what was happening sunk in.

The 17-year-old boy who survived the fire and the 11-year-old girl who perished in it are believed to be siblings who lived across the street with their mother and were sleeping over at their grandmother’s house that night.

As the house burned, one man who lives down the block grabbed a pick-axe and tried to break his way into the home to save the two trapped inside.

“He couldn’t get in from the front. The fire was so big. He took the ladder from me and they ran to the backyard and put the ladder up. By that time my mom had run across the street to let (the children’s mother) know,” the witness said.

“She came running over and she said, ‘My kids are in there!’ And she was looking for her mom. We were all yelling, ‘Maria! Maria!’”

At that point, the children’s stepfather climbed on the back of the roof and smashed out a window, attempting to create an exit for the grandmother and granddaughter.

“He was yelling, ‘If you can hear me, run to the window!’ The smoke was so thick you couldn’t see in, but you could see the flames. He just kept calling for them and nobody came,” the witness said.

“We were all waiting to see if she and her granddaughter were going to come out. Everybody was just hoping maybe they would come out.”

Their bodies were removed from the house hours later, after police and fire crews were able to put out hot spots and make sure it was safe to enter. The house was completely gutted by the fire.

The neighbourhood is no stranger to fatal fires or arsons that take lives. In the last two years there have been two deadly rooming house fires that claimed a total of three lives. Murder charges against two people were laid in the second fire.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Ryan Thorpe
Reporter

Ryan Thorpe likes the pace of daily news, the feeling of a broadsheet in his hands and the stress of never-ending deadlines hanging over his head.

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