WINNIPEG – A fire in a rooming house on Austin St. North has killed two people just a block away from another fire that killed five people in 2011.
The Thursday morning fire has brought concerns about rooming house safety back into the spotlight for Point Douglas residents.
“It’s just a complete failure as far a housing model goes,” said Josh Peterson.
Nine people live in the house and 15 were inside at the time of the fire.
Neighbours are convinced drug activity was happening inside.
“This is the last what we call an ugly house on the street it’s had real behaviour problems,” said Sel Burrows, a local community activist.
The house hasn’t been inspected since 2014, according to city records. Though the owner’s son told Global News there were definitely enough fire alarms inside.
“Everything’s always up to code we have inspections all the time,” said Mikkel Grabinski.
The city and firefighters’ union disagree on how many rooming houses there are in the city, putting the number between 645 and 814.
Burrows is pushing for annual inspections for rooming houses that would include all safety issues including fire protection and other issues like overcrowding.
“We need rooming houses, places where people who have problems can live, the problems happen when you get too many people together,” he said.
Investigators spent the afternoon combing through the burnt property and back alley area looking for evidence and surveillance video.
The fire that killed five in 2011 was intentionally set.
The fire on Thursday morning is considered suspicious.