Neighbours of burned Langside Street home say recurring fires reflect 'lack of hope'

Neighbours of a house on Langside Street that was demolished after a third fire at the property in less than a year say recurring fires in the community are part of a deeper problem.

Firefighters were called to the vacant two-storey house, between Sargent and Ellice avenues, shortly after 1 p.m. on Thursday.

No one was inside at the time of the fire. After attempting to put the fire out from inside the house, firefighters moved outside when conditions became too dangerous, the city said in a news release. 

The house suffered significant water and fire damage and an emergency demolition was ordered.

The same house caught fire twice late last year — once in November and again in December.

Robert Weiss has lived across the street from the Spence Neighbourhood home for nearly two decades. He says the fires, along with chronic problems like poverty and addictions, have dampened some of the hope he felt when he first moved into the area. 

"It's kind of gone through a cycle now that optimism is kind of gone away. People have moved out as opposed to moving in," he said.

Kelly Fitzpatrick told CBC News he owned the Langside Street home since 2010, inheriting it after his mother died. He said he'd lived there since November 1962. 

Now he's living in a rooming house in Winnipeg's North End after relocating three other times. Some of his belongings that were left in the house were previously stolen and he figures other things like letters and photographs were destroyed in Thursday's blaze, he said. 

"I went from owning my own house, as tenuous as that was, to being burned out of it and living here," he said Friday night. 

Fitzpatrick said he hadn't lived on Langside since the November fire, adding while the house was salvageable at the time, it would've required thousands of dollars in repair. He was just getting back on his feet after starting a new job, he said. 

There were also longstanding issues with squatters who he said he and police had run-ins with. Fitzpatrick said the unwelcome guests frequented the house's garage, which is where a fire started on the property in December. 

The City of Winnipeg said the house and garage suffered significant damages and both were considered to be "a complete loss" in a December news release, noting the building was also damaged in a fire the previous month. 

"I didn't want anybody to think that it was just another abandoned house ... and burned down," Fitzpatrick said.