Bird rescued, garage burned in fires in Winnipeg's North End and West End

Winnipeg fire crews doused a garage blaze early Thursday before rescuing a bird from a house fire in another part of the city.

They were called around 4:30 a.m. to the garage on the 400 block of Furby Street, near Ellice Avenue, in the West End. The flames were already going strong when they arrived but the blaze was extinguished quickly.

Damage is estimated to be roughly $30,000 to the garage and its contents, but things could have been much worse. There were several barbecue tanks, big and small, inside the garage at the time, according to firefighters.

Only one, a small camping-sized one, exploded.

Firefighters were still sifting through the charred debris inside the garage around 7 a.m. and believe the fire started in the front corner.

North End fire

The call for the other fire came in around 5:45 a.m.

Crews rushed to a house in the 700 block of Selkirk Avenue, between Arlington Street and Parr Street, in the city's North End.

Three people from the home, along with a dog, had managed to escape before firefighters arrived and rescued a pet bird that was still inside.

One of the people from the home was trying to put out the fire with a garden hose when crews arrived and took over.

There is no estimate of damage from that fire.