Fears rise as fires rage

Blaring sirens have become a sound all too familiar for Almario and Maria Sambo.

Maria was at the couple’s North End home early Tuesday evening when she heard the recognizable wailing again. Fire trucks had sped to the area to extinguish a fire in the basement of a vacant home next door.

“It’s been notorious,” Maria said about the increase in vacant building fires in the neighbourhood.

The fire next door was the second crews have fought there in the last three months. It had been boarded up after a fire tore through it and the home beside it in early February.

Today, three homes at 560, 562 and 564 Mountain Ave. stand burnt and barren with garbage and ash strewn through the back and front yards.

Crews responding to a garage fire at 564 Mountain last week pulled a man’s body from the wreckage.

The Sambo family is fed up with feeling unsafe.

“We are quiet people, responsible Canadian citizens, we do our duties and pay our taxes … my desire is to be out of this area but … we don’t have enough money to live in a better place,” Maria’s husband, Almario, said from their home Wednesday afternoon.

After a rash of fires throughout the city, residents living around vacant and derelict homes say the buildings are a magnet for squatters and fire bugs, advocates are calling for more action on the issue and lawyers are challenging the legal framework that fines owners of the buildings that keep going up in flames.

The city reported 125 vacant building fires — a new record — for 2023, up to Nov. 15. Full year-end figures, or ones for 2024, were not available.

Last summer, the City of Winnipeg announced it would crack down on building owners who let properties go into disarray by amending the vacant building bylaw to fine them for firefighting costs.

The bylaw’s intent is to “contribute positively to neighbourhood renewal by discouraging vacant buildings to remain inactive for extended periods of time, and ensuring vacant buildings are brought to habitable standards prior to occupancy.”

John Prystanski is crying foul on the legislation. The lawyer and former city councillor is in the midst of appealing fines given to three of his clients under the bylaw totalling $179,000. He is also considering legal action against the city.

“Having the city charge (my clients) outside of what’s allowed in the bylaw is really disheartening and a disservice to everyone, Prystanski told the Free Press. “We’re hoping the city will do what’s right because litigation is expensive for everyone, including the city.”

Prystanski alleges the bylaw is not enforceable because it is not clear, concise or precise and fees issued are inconsistent with guidelines and calculations set out in the bylaw.

The “fee amount per unit” for firefighting efforts set out in the legislation is $1,400 per hour at the scene for a two-person crew and $2,601 an hour for a four-person crew.

As of Aug. 31, 2023, the city had issued 27 bills, totalling more than $750,000, according to data given to the Free Press last summer.

‘It seems targeted’: trio of property owners challenges city’s vacant buildings fire billing

Community advocate Vivian Ketchum lives in the Centennial neighbourhood, surrounded by vacant and semi-vacant buildings. Despite efforts to close off entrances, she says the homes are still broken into and often set aflame.

“I can take a crowbar and be inside any house within minutes,” she said Wednesday, adding she has kept her tenant insurance despite living on a strict income in fear her apartment will be the next to burn.

Ketchum said while she appreciates the bylaw changes have meant rubble from fires is cleaned up in a more timely manner, the legislation needs to better hold property owners accountable.

Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) insisted the city is taking a “tough as nails approach.”

“There are too many vacant and derelict buildings, we need them cleaned up, we need owners to take responsibility for these buildings and to understand that the neighbours don’t want them anywhere around,” she said.

Prystanski suggested the city dole out tax credits for people who donate properties with vacant or derelict buildings on them, so not only does the city become responsible for it but the onus is off the community to act as watchdogs for the properties.

Since the first fire ignited beside them in February, the Sambos have kept a close watch on the empty neighbouring properties. The family has seen boards meant to cover windows and doors pried open and, one hour after the Free Press left the area, Maria called a reporter to say there were two individuals already trying to get back in the home that burned the night before.

Rollins admitted more work needs to be done to define security requirements for vacant and derelict buildings and said that work is ongoing.

City spokesperson Kalen Qually said the city is exploring avenues to hold non-compliant property owners more accountable and the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service is working on a report that will be brought forward to council with proposed adjustments to the vacant building bylaw.

The Sambos don’t want to wait. After they’ve paid off their mortgage in a few years, the family plans to leave the area for somewhere they consider safer.

“It’s just scary,” Almario said.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca

Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer

Nicole Buffie is a multimedia producer who reports for the Free Press city desk.

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