Vacant Windsor Hotel in downtown Winnipeg goes up in flames, will be demolished: fire department

Thick plumes of smoke could be seen from blocks away as the 120-year-old Windsor Hotel in downtown Winnipeg went up in flames Wednesday morning.

Fire crews responded to a report of a structure fire at the now-vacant hotel, on Garry Street near St. Mary Avenue, around 10:50 a.m., according to Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service platoon Chief Brent Cheater.

"We were presented with a pretty daunting fire in a building that's highly combustible," he told reporters near the hotel on Wednesday afternoon, adding that there were fires on all three floors of the building when crews arrived.

Cheater could not confirm whether anyone was in the hotel during the fire, but said the building should have been vacant and no injuries have been reported.

"We didn't send crews in to check. The fire had already advanced beyond what we would do as an offensive fire — we went strictly defensive," he said.

The hotel has sat vacant since March, after it was closed under a provincial health hazard order. 

A number of nearby cars were damaged after the hotel started to collapse, according to Cheater. An emergency demolition order has been issued and an excavator was expected to begin tearing down the building's walls late Wednesday afternoon, he said.

Work was also being done to reopen St. Mary Avenue and Fort Street, Cheater said, but Garry Street was likely to remain closed into Wednesday evening.

The building was highly flammable since it was mainly made of wood, said Cheater, and with any structure of that age, there's the risk it contains asbestos and other toxic chemicals.

Firefighters would continue to "drown" the Windsor Hotel fire to prevent any toxic chemicals from going airborne, he said. They would also dig through the rubble and check for hot spots as the walls are torn down.

The city advised nearby residents to close their doors and windows and monitor air quality as the smoke filled the air of downtown Winnipeg.

Some of the heavy black smoke after the fire began was drawn into the ventilation system of Beacon Hill Lodge, a nearby seniors' complex and nursing home on Fort Street, said Cheater. Crews inspected Beacon Hill to ensure smoke did not impact its residents.

The complex was temporarily without ventilation and elevator service as power was cut to the immediate areas near the Windsor Hotel, but it was able to secure a temporary source of power, he said.

Three Beacon Hill residents considered to be high-risk were monitored by nurses, and the rest were sheltered in place, but Cheater said no evacuation was conducted.