Car destroyed after going up in flames in Winnipeg's River Heights area

WINNIPEG -

A River Heights woman said her car was destroyed after it went up in flames on Sunday morning.

Amanda Merritt, who lives on Cambridge Street, said that around 4 a.m. she heard her neighbour shouting about a fire.

“I was woken up by a neighbour just shouting ‘Fire! Fire! Fire!’” she said.

“I was startled of course and ran downstairs and looked outside my window and could see my car in flames.”

She said the car was completely engulfed in flames.

“Straight away, because it was dark, I just saw lots of flames,” Merritt said.

She then got her son and got out of the house as she quickly as she could to avoid any potential dangers.

Merritt noted a few of her neighbours called 911.

“The commotion had woken up a lot of people in the neighbourhood,” Merritt said.

She said firefighters managed to extinguish the fire quickly, but the car is a total write-off, noting that her shed and fence were also damaged.

Merritt said she is feeling overwhelmed by what happened.

“I feel frustrated, sad that this happened, but also this sense of community in the neighbourhood,” she said.

“Lots of neighbours have reached out, so I’ve seen a lot of just people coming together and showing support. That’s probably the best feeling out of this.”

Merritt said that one of her neighbour’s surveillance cameras captured the incident.

The City of Winnipeg said the cause of the fire is being investigated, adding that no one was hurt.