Fire guts vacant home

A Fitzgerald Street resident said he woke up Tuesday morning to see an unoccupied house next door to his engulfed in flames. 

The resident, who spoke to tbnewswatch.com but refused to give his name, said he saw the flames and smoke coming from the house next door about 5 a.m. Thunder Bay Fire Service received a call of a fire on Fitzgerald Street. Five pumpers responded and fire crews eventually brought the fire under control.

"My dogs woke me up and I heard some kind of banging," the resident said. There was smoke pouring out so I called the fire department."

The resident said he lived in the area for two years and owned both sets of houses next to the vacant house. He said the house next to his had been vacant for about seven years, but added that he believed people had been living in it..

"The backdoor has been opened and replaced for the last few years," he said. "Obviously someone is living in there."

John Hay, fire chief of Thunder Bay Fire and Rescue Service, said they found evidence that someone was living in the house recently. The house didn’t have power or heating but Hay said people still use vacant buildings to keep warm.

"Any time people are living in buildings that don’t have utilities attached to them they create ways to get warm and create light," Hay said. "The methods aren’t usually very fire safe."

"Thunder Bay has many good buildings. There are (vacant) buildings and they tend to be accessed by people that need shelter," he said.

Hay said fire investigators turned over the property back to the owners who would decide what to do with the house.

Chris Adams, executive officer with Thunder Bay Police Service, said catching squatters taking up temporary residence isn’t too easy.

"The odds of catching someone right in the act of entering a building is a bit tricky," Adams said. "Sometimes we are called after the fact. People that are using these buildings are careful themselves not to be seen entering."

Adams said he couldn’t guess how many homeless people reside in the city but added police respond to more liquor license offences than trespassing.

Police responded to 57 calls involving people drinking alcohol in a public place over a five-day period across the city. Adams said both areas of the city, including Current River, received equal amount of calls.