Although the cause of the fire remains undetermined, a massive blaze at an industrial warehouse on Sutherland Avenue on Tuesday has reignited the conversation about vacant building fires in Winnipeg.
Mayor Scott Gillingham told 680 CJOB’s The News that more needs to be done to address the rash of vacant building fires the city has seen recently — as well as speeding up the removal of rubble and debris in a fire’s aftermath.
“It doesn’t matter where you live in the city of Winnipeg, no one should have to put up with the prolonged, unsightly, pile of debris sitting beside you … or a vacant, boarded-up building that could become a safety hazard,” Gillingham said.
“And that’s what this is: it’s about safety, it’s about neighbourhood blight. We’re trying to make changes so that sites get cleaned up faster.”
The mayor said property owners can now get demolition permits quicker, as they no longer have to submit a building plan.
The Sutherland fire, which began just after 5 a.m. Tuesday and burned for much of the day, forced a number of area residents to evacuate and others to shelter in place due to concerns around potentially toxic smoke.
As of Wednesday morning, some firefighters remained at the site, and the area near Sutherland and Maple Street North remained closed.
Gillingham said he already had a scheduled tour planned for next week with the Point Douglas Residents Association, and the massive fire in the area adds more urgency to concerns over community safety.
“Residents living in the area have raised fair concerns that they’re experiencing too much crime, too much property crime,” he said.
“Sometimes they can’t enjoy their own communities that they live in, their own properties, because of some of the things they’re experiencing there.”
“Everything is concerning, alarming, distressing, all of the above,” said Marshall Wiebe, a Point Douglas Residents’ Committee member in an interview on 680 CJOB.
“Finding out there’s a fire a block-and-a-half from our house, (it’s) a feeling of ‘here we go again.’ These large fires are absolutely alarming and concerning, for my neighbours, all the residents that I speak to.”
Wiebe said rubble remains from a previous fire on Main Street more than two months ago, calling it a “huge eyesore.”
Depending on the results of an investigation into what’s found in the aftermath of the fire, the clean-up could be out of the city’s hands.
“When you’ve got asbestos, there are provincial workplace health and safety orders that the property owner there has to comply with the province on,” the mayor said.