Arson blamed after fire guts building

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/11/2023 (721 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 33-year-old man has been charged with arson after an early-morning fire completely destroyed a building at 144 12th St. that was home to two Brandon businesses — a taxi company and a non-profit agency — and more than 10 apartment tenants.

Police assisted all of the tenants out of the burning building safely, while Brandon Fire and Emergency Services fought to contain the blaze for much of the day. The man accused of setting the fire faces charges of break and enter and arson with disregard for human life.

The fire began around 3 a.m. after an employee at one of the businesses called police to say that someone had broken into the building. The employee was hiding in the office and reported smelling smoke.

When they arrived on scene, police arrested the suspect, who had apparently smashed the glass on one of the building’s front doors and started a fire inside. Police alerted and helped evacuate the tenants who lived in apartments on the second floor of the building. Soon after, flames quickly engulfed the structure. No injuries were reported.

Fire Capt. Shayne Collister, speaking to the Sun at the fire scene, said the blaze was under control around 9 a.m. and that the building collapsed around 8:30 a.m. Crews had some difficulty fighting the fire in certain areas, he said, adding that at one point crews thought the fire was under control, but then the blaze got away from them.

Flames were still visible from the back of the building at the time, but Collister said a backhoe that was pushing over the burnt walls helped to contain the fire and allow crew to access more of the burning area.

“We’re just trying to keep [the fire] from getting into the [nearby building] because it’s a two-storey structure beside a single-storey structure. We’re just trying to push and manage it,” the fire captain said.

Ese Wallace Auroror was one of the tenants who was evacuated from the burning building. Auroror said he awoke around 3 a.m. to what he thought was the sound of a car alarm — but it was actually a smoke alarm. Soon after, he heard a fierce knock on his door and a voice indicating that it was police and they needed people to evacuate because of a fire.

Auroror said he only had time to grab his laptop, important papers, and his winter jacket. He said he lost everything, including irreplaceable personal effects from his home country of Nigeria and items from his wife, who lives in Nigeria.

“There are quite a number of things that are sentimental, some of them from my late father, some of them from my wife who’s not here with me in Brandon (and) some of them from my mother as well,” he said.

He said that the apartment building had two apartment units, which housed multiple people, and police said they evacuated more than 10 people from the building.

Some of the tenants were brought to BPS until alternative shelter could be lined up. Auroror said he has been able to get temporary shelter at the Victoria Inn for three days through Red Cross.

Auroror, who is an international student at Brandon University studying computer science, said that though he was not physically injured in the fire, the experience was emotionally difficult and he is concerned about his ability to write a test for one of his courses on Thursday.

“Physically, we are OK,” Auroror said of himself and the other tenants. “But emotionally and psychologically, we’re not.”

The building also housed two businesses — ABC Taxi and Turning Leaf, a non-profit charitable organization with a staff of 16 that provides support services in the community.

Turning Leaf’s supervisor, Jeremy Randall, rushed down to the scene of Monday morning’s blaze after he found out his office was on fire from a Facebook post.

In an interview with the Sun, Turning Leaf’s chief operating officer, Jennifer Biggs, said the group’s services will continue to be provided despite the destroyed office space. Due to the organization’s digital storage system, most important documents and information can be retrieved, she said, adding that the organization is still taking stock of what was lost in the fire.

“It’s a loss for sure, for the individuals that we support, as well as the staff,” Biggs told the Sun. “So we’re doing our best to keep the staff engaged with our head office and then we’re getting supplies out so that there’s no interruption of service for the individuals that we support.”

The Sun reached out to ABC Taxi, but its manager was not available for comment. An employee of the company, however, confirmed that the taxi service will continue operating without disruption, and they are currently working on setting up a new location.

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

» X: @geena_mortfield