Shipping container shelters to replace tents at site of Saint John's most recent encampment fire
CBC
The night her tent was set on fire, Robin Monks couldn't understand at first what was happening.
She was huddled with her boyfriend and two friends in a large encampment between Exmouth and Waterloo streets, where she and about a dozen other people have been living since the beginning of the summer amid a mess of overflowing dumpsters, refuse, propane tanks, and discarded furniture.
They were trying to keep warm in conditions that felt like -11 C with the windchill.
At about 7:40 p.m., "we heard a car pull up," she said. "And then there was stuff hitting the top of our tent, and they were glowing."
Monks and her friend started hitting the roof of the tent, trying to knock off the objects.
"I heard the crackles and I realized it was actual fire," she said. As the tent went up in flames, "We all rushed for the other side to try to get out. We were all screaming for help."
Saint John police have released surveillance footage of a car pulling up on the Exmouth Street side of the encampment. A person can be seen getting out of the passenger's side and slipping behind the fence. There is a flash, the tent catches fire, and the person dashes back to the car.
Forensic services and the major crime unit are investigating the cause of the fire, and police are asking anyone with additional information to come forward.
The fire — one of several that have occurred at encampments in Saint John over the winter — comes just as non-profits are getting ready to pilot an outside-the-box, temporary initiative to shelter some of the people who need housing most.
Six shipping containers are being installed at 110-128 Waterloo St. by local non-profit Kaleidoscope Social Impact in collaboration with other community groups.
Each container has been modified with doors and windows to create two 8x10 units, which will have electricity, heat, a bed, table and basic furniture. When complete, all six containers will have space for about a dozen people and cost $15,000 each.
"We've been trying to manage the situation," said Seth Asimakos, founder and CEO of Kaleidoscope, which also owns the land. "People don't have anywhere else to go, and we weren't in a position to push people off this site."
Overseeing the site is Fresh Start Inc, a local non-profit the province has hired to provide outreach services to encampments in Saint John. Fresh Start will have an office in the temporary container village where they can connect residents with services, and build supportive relationships with people living there.
The goal is to get people into actual housing, rather than modified shipping containers, according to Fresh Start's executive director Melanie Vautour.
Nova Scotia Power is providing more information about the cyberattack on the utility earlier this year and its response in the months that followed.
A rare old-growth forest in Quebec’s Mauricie region is at the centre of a growing conflict between conservation advocates and the provincial government, after forestry roadwork was authorized in an area currently under review for protected status.
The FBI and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York sought an interview with ex-prince Andrew Mountbatten Windsor for connections to Canadian sex offender and fashion mogul Peter Nygard.
A mother is grieving after a carbon monoxide incident killed her 11-year-old son and put her husband in hospital in critical condition.
Just as Alberta begins to dig out from its last winter storm, most of the province is preparing for another blast of snow and brutal cold, just in time for the holidays.
The B.C. Conservative candidate for the Surrey-Guildford riding in the 2024 provincial election, which was narrowly won by the B.C. NDP, has now abandoned a lawsuit that sought to invalidate that result.
A new suite will soon be available for the families of patients receiving care at P.E.I.'s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
TTC ridership was lower than expected this past fall despite a push by some employers to bring employees back into the office, according to a TTC draft budget document.
Extreme cold is drawing near the prospect of rolling blackouts in Whitehorse.
Egmont MP Bobby Morrissey says federal help for Prince Edward Island's struggling oyster fishery is expected early in the new year.
Calgary police have charged a man with defrauding numerous seniors out of about $186,000 in a string of incidents over a five-week period.
A Brampton lawyer allegedly connected to fugitive Ryan Wedding was granted bail Tuesday morning by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Rankin Inlet hamlet councillors recently passed a motion that has had them avoid drinking alcohol for the 12 days leading up to Christmas, with the goal of setting a positive example for the community.