Manitoba Housing fire injures three, fans concern for response plans

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A blaze at a Manitoba Housing high-rise that sent three people to hospital and forced nearly a dozen others from their homes Friday morning has sparked concerns over fire preparedness among tenants at the primarily 55-plus complex.

“When I opened my door, there was just a wall of smoke,” said Tracy Burnett, a tenant at 101 Marion St., a 16-storey social housing complex in the St. Boniface neighbourhood. “I thought the fire had to be below me for there to be that much smoke. I was scared.”

The source of the thick, black smoke, which lingered lightly in the air of the building hours later, was coming from an intense fire, four floors below Burnett’s apartment.

According to the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, a monitored fire alarm was activated at 101 Marion St. just after 6 a.m. The blaze within the sixth-floor suite could be seen from the street as crews arrived.

Residents of the apartment where the fire started were found by first-responders in the stairwell, covered in black soot, WFPS platoon chief Brent Cheater said.

In all, three people were rushed to hospital — two in unstable condition and one in critical condition — and approximately 15 others were assessed on scene by paramedics.

Cheater said the evacuation of the building, which is home to seniors, people with disabilities, medical conditions and others who require mobility aids, went well.

Winnipeg Transit buses were called to temporarily shelter people who had managed to make their way out of the building, while other tenants who were not ordered to evacuate sheltered in place until the fire was extinguished just before 8 a.m., Cheater said.

The property sustained significant smoke and water damage.

Burnett was one tenant who chose to stay in her suite, not knowing whether it was safe for her to venture out into the smoke or if she would encounter the blaze if she tried to leave.

She was unable to understand a message coming across the intercom on her floor, and retreated to her suite. Burnett said she worried about her neighbours who would undoubtedly struggle down 10 flights of stairs.

“A lot of people can’t get out because of mobility issues… I thought how are these people going to get out with scooters and walkers?” she said. “There was no one, there was no plan of action to get these people out.”

Allan Tillenius knocked on every door on his floor in a bid to get people to exit the building — most tenants ignore the warning due to so many false alarms, he said — and helped neighbours down the emergency stairwell before being told to return to their apartments by firefighters at the sixth floor.

Tillenius said he later checked the opposite stairwell to see if it was clear, and came across others in need of help making their way through the smoke.

Tillenius and Burnett said more needs to be done in the wake of the blaze to ensure all residents at the apartment tower know what to do in case of a fire and can evacuate safely.

“It definitely could have been worse,” Burnett said.

“Manitoba Housing should have things in place for this. It shouldn’t be up to us to take this on our shoulder,” Tillenius added.

People who need help evacuating a building on fire should call 911, Cheater said. Firefighters will then be dispatched to suites to assist.

Apartment buildings may also have a list of suites where additional assistance is required as part of an emergency evacuation plan, which is available to first-responders, he explained.

“For the most part, sheltering in place works well in these buildings,” Cheater said. “We did have a number of people today with mobility issues… trying to get them down, we physically have to carry them down to where we can get an elevator to them.”

A spokesperson for Manitoba Housing confirmed an evacuation plan is posted in the building.

Tenants in all areas of the building except the sixth floor were able to return to their suites Friday, and restoration efforts are underway, the spokesperson said. Other tenants will stay with friends, family or at a hotel.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but early indications point to an electrical appliance catching fire, Cheater said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca