Firefighters rescued a man who jumped from his balcony to an adjoining roof during a fire at an apartment complex in downtown Winnipeg on Sunday morning.
The fire started just after 8:00 a.m. in a suite on the fourth floor of the highrise building on Donald Street near St. Mary’s Avenue. Thick smoke billowed out of window when emergency crews arrived.
A witness who lives on the top floor of the building saw the man crawl out onto his balcony wearing only his underwear and jump several feet to the roof of the adjoining building.
“He just had a little corner of that roof where there was no smoke,” said Paul Dufault. “He was lucky that he was able to have relatively fresh air.”
Firefighters were able to contain the fire to one suite and enter it from the hallway. They found the man on his balcony suffering from burns to his body and took him to hospital in unstable condition. He was the only occupant of the suite.
Most of the damage was contained to one suite, but the hallway and some adjoining suites suffered smoke and water damage.
Firefighters were on scene all morning. No word yet on what caused the fire or how much damage the fire caused.
