The president of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg, Tom Bilous, said he could not comment on the nature of the firefighter’s condition, but said he was told the man was in stable condition and was being held in hospital for follow-up. “[It’s] more or less precautionary at this point. So [I’m] “I’m very happy about that,” Billus said Tuesday afternoon. Two other firefighters were also taken to hospital in stable condition to be treated for symptoms of heat exhaustion after the fire was extinguished on College Avenue. They have since been released, Billus said. No other injuries were reported, the city said in a press release earlier Tuesday. Crews arrived at the burning house on College Avenue, between Aikins and Charles Streets in north Winnipeg, just before 8:30 p.m. said the city announcement. The fire also spread to one floor of a nearby two and a half house with people inside. Crews were able to evacuate everyone immediately and also evacuated a second neighboring property as a precaution, the statement said. The empty house where the fire broke out on Tuesday morning is expected to be a complete loss. An adjacent occupied house had significant structural damage to the attic, as well as damage from smoke and water throughout, the city says. (Rudy Gauer / CBC) Bilous said the heat and humidity of the day posed an additional challenge for the crews. At the time of the fire, the temperature recorded at Winnipeg Airport was 19 C, with a relative humidity of about 95%, according to Environment Canada. The city also saw rain later in the morning. “When you are dealing with the obvious heat of a fire and then you have this ridiculous humidity, kids are struggling with the elements, right?” said Billus. “It’s raining torrentially and what else, so you sweat … It can be too much to bear sometimes. And the body starts, you know, to close.” He said that while crews have things in fire scenes to help them cool down, such as water coolers, cooling chairs, fans and misters, sometimes that is still not enough. “We have learned from injuries from the past and everything else and we are getting better. But even with all this progress … injuries are still happening. It is a dangerous job we are doing,” Bilous said. Firefighters launched a defensive attack on the empty house and an attack on the two-and-a-half-story house, and an aerial staircase was set up to help, the city said in a statement. The water is on the sidewalk in front of a house on College Avenue that was severely damaged by a fire on Tuesday. (Rudy Gauer / CBC) The crews also used fans to keep smoke and heat out of the pre-emptied house. The technique, called compression, could reduce the chance of a fire spreading, said Scott Wilkinson, assistant director of risk reduction at the Winnipeg Fire Department, in an email statement later Tuesday. Emergency social workers were called in to help 16 people from the occupied house find temporary accommodation. The two-storey house suffered significant structural damage to the attic, as well as damage from smoke and water throughout, the announcement said. Early Tuesday afternoon, crews had extinguished both fires, but were still facing the hotspots. Residents of the other neighboring property were expected to be able to go home as soon as the garage work was completed, the city said. The empty house, which had already been damaged by previous fires, is expected to be a total loss. The causes of the fire are being investigated. There are no damage estimates yet, the statement said.
