A teepee set up near the intersection of Henry Avenue and Martha Street has been destroyed by a fire, city officials have confirmed.
Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service responded to a call just after 1:30 Tuesday afternoon and were dispatched to a temporary encampment following a report of a teepee on fire.
When crews arrived, they found a teepee and its contents engulfed in flames.
Officials say the fire was extinguished quickly and no injuries were reported.
The city said the teepee was believed to be Matthew’s Place, a structure put up by an Indigenous group called Healing Together as a shelter for people experiencing homelessness.
Maj. Gordon Taylor, executive director of the Salvation Army’s Centre of Hope, told 680 CJOB that his organization saw a small increase in people staying there after the teepee – located right across the street – burned down.
“We saw a couple of extra people last night who had been staying there,” he said. “We had been interacting with those people and letting them know what we offer and that they can come in… but they’ve often been choosing to stay there. We can’t make that choice for them.
“Quite often there’s either some form of addiction or a mental health issue or very often a combination of the two, so people who are making choices to not come into a facility like ours, it’s perhaps out of their control to make good choices.”
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