Heavy smoke was seen billowing out of a fire under the St. Mary’s Road bridge.
At 2:49 p.m. on Sunday, the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service responded to the fire under the bridge near the St. Mary’s, St. Anne’s Road fork in the road.
Dick Vlaming with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service says crews had a challenging time fighting the blaze.
“Fire crews arrived and observed a large amount of smoke coming from the West side of the bridge and under the bridge. They had a difficult time to get under there to see what was burning. They deployed ladders and hose lines and started extinguishing a fire that was not garbage but a lot of debris that was under the bridge burning.
“This got heavy timbers that are part of the bridges structure and we have to make sure they’re extinguished fully.”
The city is sending someone to check the integrity of the bridge.
The fire hydrants were on the other side of St. Mary’s so fire crews had to block the road.
A total of nine firefighting trucks helped to extinguish the fire. Police and EMS were also on scene.
No one was treated for injuries.
“The homeless are cooking and have little fires to stay warm,” Vlaming said. “We just got through some rain and maybe they’re drying off. I’m not exactly sure what’s happening but fires do happen under the bridge when people are living under there. Hopefully no one got hurt, we didn’t come across anyone who was living under there. We did come across a lot of debris, a lot of wire and tires and clothing so we aren’t sure how it got there but it’s there.”
The fire is under investigation and there is no damage estimate at this time.
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