Point Douglas residents, businesses reflect on effects of recent fires on the neighbourhood

Some residents and businesses in Winnipeg's Point Douglas neighbourhood say they aren't surprised by the recent rash of fires in the area, but they link the weekend loss of a multi-use apartment building to other ongoing neighbhourhood issues.

A two-storey building on Main Street between Jarvis and Sutherland avenues, which held both residential and commercial tenants, was on fire shortly after 7:15 a.m. on Saturday.

Fire crews had to use two aerial ladders to battle the fire, but the building is expected to be a total loss. 

About 12-14 people self-evacuated, with one person taken to hospital in stable condition, according to platoon Chief Don Enns of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service. These individuals are now without a home, and those who live and work around the site of the fire are concerned about the ripple effects on the neighbourhood.

Safety in being known: bartender

Mary-Lynne Melo, a bartender at the nearby New West Hotel, has had concerns about the volume of activity in the two-storey building that burned on the weekend.

"You see people in and out all the time, because I take a bus home. So I mean it's just obvious," Melo said, adding she believes people were squatting in the building.

She calls the area "a tough part of town," but still feels safe in the area, as she believes people that frequent the area know who she is.

One of those people got in the way of her being robbed by two youth about six months ago.

"They were trying to be in a gang or something and asked me if I had money or gold. I was waiting for my bus and somebody else came out and happened to know me, and know that I work here and told them to leave me alone," Melo said Sunday.

She also thinks it's tough for people to find adequate housing at a reasonable price.

David Dueck, meanwhile, lives less than a block away from the site of Saturday's fire. He said there was "definitely" squatters in the building that burned down, who he had observed using drugs.

He's troubled by what's been happening in his neighbourhood lately. Dueck said he thinks more safe consumption sites would help quell some of the drug use he's noticed, and believes methamphetamine use is having a negative effect in Point Douglas.

"I think it's the province or the city has to realize they're behind the times with safe injection sites, but instead of letting the aftermath continually happen, something should be done to be put in place so that these things don't occur," he said.

It wouldn't surprise him if Saturday's fire and others in the area were connected, he said, though a link has not been proven. Still, he doesn't rate his feeling of safety highly in his neighbourhood.

"If 10 would be no and 100 would be a better way of describing it, I'd say a 10," Dueck said.

Myron Schultz owns the nearby Wonderful World of Sheepskin on Dufferin Avenue. He sees the difficulty people have on a regular basis.

"You see it in people accumulating around buildings and practicing substance abuse out in the open," he said Saturday.

"I always wonder where our our city councillors are with things like this are happening, and they seem to be nowhere to be found."

CBC reached out to Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski) but has not received a response.

'More and more empty lots'

Keith Horn co-owns Northern Hotel, which is across the street from where three local businesses were also destroyed by a fire last month. He said another fire is bad for the area.

"We keep seeing more and more places go down, and we're going to have more and more empty lots," he said Sunday. 

"It's tough already for the biz association down there to attract any new tenants or building owners down to Main Street, and now with all the fires, even more buildings that aren't available."

Horn is saddened but not overly concerned about his hotel because it has a quality fire-suppression system. His staff are also quite diligent watching what's happening around the building, but that doesn't mean there's no risk for his 45-room hotel.

"An accident can happen and one thing leads to another, and [we could be] in the same situations as the people across the street," he said.

The City of Winnipeg has yet to release details relating to the investigation of last month's fire, but Horn believes the building that firefighters worked to extinguish all day Saturday has been problematic for some time.

It's also been for sale since late last year.

"That apartment block's been trouble for a long time, so I'm not sure how many rooms were in the place being rented out," Horn said.