'Same problems over and over': 2024 the worst year for vacant house fires in Winnipeg, expected to get worse

2024 has been the worst year on record for vacant building fires in Winnipeg and with winter arriving, the tally is only expected to get worse.

Ron Knol has lived in the William Whyte neighbourhood for 40 years and said the fire cycle repeats itself.

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"It's like a hamster wheel. Same problems over and over. Groundhog day, and nothing seems to be done," said Knol.

He said the cycle is as follows – a vacant home gets cleaned up, a fire starts, then it gets boarded up.

In recent days, a string of fires has the neighbourhood association's president thinking there may be an arsonist in the area.

"In our particular area, the way the fires are being targeted, they're less than a block away from each other. And they're houses, they're garages," said Darrell Warren, the president of the William Whyte Neighbourhood Association.

Winnipeg's deputy fire chief, Scott Wilkinson, said he can't comment on this specific cluster, but said in most cases home fires are intentionally set.

"If they're unmonitored and vacant, it's just easy access and people are taking advantage of that just to intentionally set the fires, or just people at this time of year are definitely looking for warmth," said Wilkinson.

Stats from the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service show there have been 182 vacant building fires this year between January and September. That's up from 156 total in 2023 and 97 in 2022. Looking back before the pandemic, there were 81 in 2019 and 58 in 2018.

Wilkinson said vacant fires are a city-wide problem, but most cases are in the inner city.

"We've had them all year, multiple times a week. Lately, we have had a bit of a run on them again since the weather got colder. I expect that to continue with the weather as it continues to get colder."

To try and help with the problem, the city has started an unsafe conditions response team, but the pilot project won't start work until next year.

Warren said it's time for the province to get involved in a solution.

"We can turn them into houses and eliminate the temptation," said Warren.

Knol isn't convinced the city's plan will help much.

"That just seems like one more spoke in the hamster wheel," said Knol.

Instead, he thinks the city should be raising fines for derelict property owners.

"Maybe they should fine them $100,000 or just take the house away."

The Winnipeg Police Service said there are several open investigations into recent fires that it deems suspicious.

Housing Minister Bernadette Smith told CTV News Winnipeg, vacant fires are a priority for her and the government is working to make up lost ground on building more safe and affordable homes in Manitoba.