‘I lost everything’: Winnipeg woman escapes from fatal rooming house fire

A Winnipeg woman feels lucky to be alive after the rooming house she was living in went up in flames.

“I opened up the door and there was smoke coming up the stairs like it was so smoky, it was grey,” Delanne Hudson-Ledoux said.

She and her boyfriend were sleeping when the house on the 100 block of Euclid Avenue caught fire Friday after 11 p.m. They escaped in their pajamas, running for their lives.

“The fire was coming up from the stairwell and that was my only way out so I went through the emergency exit to the other side and got out. I wasn’t really thinking. I couldn’t breathe I couldn’t see so we just ran out,” she said.

“I’m still shaking thinking about it. I lost everything. Everything I owned was in that room.”

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Winnipeg police say a man in his 40’s was found dead in the home, three others were taken to hospital.

The city said it does routine inspections on legal rooming houses. That includes checking on bylaw infractions and fire safety codes. The house on Euclid Avenue was last checked in August and was in compliance with the codes.

City Councillor Janice Lukes said a fatal fire like this can happen in any area.

“When you have multiple people living in a dwelling in small, confined quarters, tragedies can happen more frequently. I think we are doing all we can as a city but I think from a bigger picture, provincially and federally, we can look at increasing affordable housing, that’s a big part of the problem,” she said.

Sel Burrows is a community activist, he said more needs to be done to make homes like this safer. He suggested making fire separation barriers mandatory, proper fire escapes and stricter landords would help.

“The whole community is just angry, really upset. We shouldn’t have deaths in rooming houses,” he said.

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The city said there are more than 800 rooming houses in Winnipeg.

In 2017 the city added funding for three more fire inspectors.

The city said if anyone has concerns about a rooming house or a possible illegal rooming house, they can contact 311. So far this year the city has received 81 calls for potentially illegal rooming houses.