A storm Thursday night may have caused a pair of house fires in Winnipeg, on opposite sides of the city.
The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service says the blazes — one on Granada Crescent and the other on Walden Crescent — are believed to have been caused by lightning strikes.
Firefighters were called to Granada Crescent in the west Winnipeg Heritage Park neighbourhood just after 7 p.m. and were able to extinguish the blaze within a half hour. No injuries were reported.
A second call came in at 7:30 p.m. about a fire at a home on Walden Crescent in Transcona. One firefighter was assessed for a minor injury and two cats were found at the scene.
Although lightning fires in the city are rare — according to the city, just 11 fires were caused by lightning in the six-year period between 2015 and 2021 — these incidents are the second in just over a week.
Two house fires were confirmed to have been caused by lighting during another storm June 28. One fire in the Valley Gardens area started when lightning struck its roof and the other in Windsor Park when a tree was hit and fell onto a house.
WFPS deputy chief Tom Wallace told 680 CJOB’s Connecting Winnipeg that so many lightning fires in a short period of time is very atypical.
“House fires associated with lightning strikes are infrequent, however, we’ve had a cluster in the last week that’s really unusual,” Wallace said.
“The fires last night were fairly dramatic, and it was immediately obvious that there was structural involvement with the fire … but some of these fires can originate in attic insulation where it takes some time before the homeowners realize there’s a fire there.
“In some cases, they may not be home, which can make it a more significant incident.”