Five blazes, 26 hours: several people sent to hospital, dozens evacuated across city

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This article was published 13/01/2019 (1922 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Four people were taken to hospital and about 40 residents were displaced after a fire Monday morning in a Maryland Street apartment building.

Emergency crews arrived just before 6:30 a.m. to battle the blaze in the three-storey building on the 400 block of Maryland, between Ellice and St. Matthews avenues.

Firefighters searched the building and rescued one person, who was transported to hospital in critical condition but has since been upgraded to stable. Three other people were taken to hospital in unstable condition, the city said.

Police closed Maryland to traffic between Ellice and St. Matthews avenues. Officers escorted area residents who live in the area that was taped off by police. A Winnipeg Transit bus was parked nearby for residents seeking shelter.

It was one of five serious fires — including one at another Maryland Street-area apartment block — that had city emergency workers hopping over a little more than 24 hours, beginning Sunday.

A fire early Sunday morning in a three-storey apartment building at 626 Ellice Ave., near Maryland, sent one person to hospital and displaced about 30 others.

When firefighters arrived at about 4 a.m., they found two people clinging to a ledge after they had climbed out of second-floor windows. Firefighters helped the people to safety and then searched the building. One person was found inside and taken to hospital in critical condition, but was later upgraded to stable.

Sunday evening, an attached garage of a home on the 400 block of Cross Creek Place in the Richmond Lakes area was severely damaged by fire, but no one was injured.

Crews arrived just before 6 p.m., and had extinguished the fire by 6:30. The occupants were able to evacuate before firefighters arrived. There was smoke damage to the rest of the house.

In St. Boniface at about the same time, firefighters were called to a multi-family complex on the 500 block of St. Jean Baptiste Street after to deal with a kitchen fire that sent the suite’s two residents to hospital in stable condition.

Firefighters arrived at about 6:30 p.m. All of the occupants escaped and there were no other injuries reported. The fire was out shortly after 7 p.m.

Damage from the fire, smoke and water has prevented the two treated in hospital and residents of one other suite from returning to their homes.

And crews were called to a single-family home on the 100 block of Morley Avenue in Riverview just after 7 Monday morning and had the fire extinguished in about a half-hour. The lone occupant of the home was outside when firefighters arrived and was taken to hospital in stable condition.

The city did not release any information on the causes of the fires or damage estimates.