Northern Manitoba community devastated by New Year's Day blaze

The mayor of a northern Manitoba community says he's devastated after a New Year's Day fire destroyed five houses.

The blaze was reported to Mounties in Moose Lake around 7:40a.m. Monday. The fire appears to have been deliberately set at one of the residences, and it quickly spread to the others, RCMPsaid in astatement to CBC News.

There were no injuries, but the fire is currentlyunder investigation, police said.

"They're completely burned down," Moose Lake Mayor Fergus Campbell said. "When you go driving down the lake by the Northern Store, it kind of looks lonely out there now, because you can't even see anything there."

Campbell said construction heaters in the town's fire station stopped working, causing the waterinside the fire truck to freeze. The truck was also frozen at the time of the fire, he said.

This prevented quickeraction by fire crews.

Campbell said firefighters put the truck in neutral "and dragged it over" to where the fire was, but when they arrived, the pumpswere not working and the ice was frozen solid inside the fire truck.

Fergus said people splashed water on the houses and triedto get more water to douse the flames. Eventually firefighters from The Pas arrived to help out in Moose Lake, which isnearly 500 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

Eventually the fire died down on its own, Fergus said.

Trucks from Moose Lake's water treatment plant normally feed the fire engine when there's a fire, but that didn't work because the fire truck was frozen, he said.

Moose Lake has a population of about 200 people,the Northern Association of Community Councils websitesays. Campbell said everybody in the community is hurt by the fire and seeing families without a home to return to.

Some of the homeowners are still looking for their valuables, he said.

"Here in Moose Lake, we're struggling on homes, and now that we've seen five houses that went just like that, it's devastated everybody," he said.

The fire department had done routine training that happens multiple times a year before Christmas, and the firefighters refilled the truck with water once it was done, he said. Somewhere between the time the training ended and the time the fire happened, the heaters in the building stopped working.

There are four construction heaters in the building and they had burnedout, Campbell said. He doesn't know how it happened.

"Those construction heaters, they could've saved those houses," he said.

The Red Cross hasprovided those impacted with a four-night stay at a hotel in The Pas, Campbell said. Gift cards were also provided for people to buy new clothes, he said.

He thinksthere areclose to 20 people affected.

There aren't new houses for people to move into, Campbell said.

Everyone in the community is shocked and worried about what happened, he said.

"They said they got surveillance cameras that somebody has and that's what those RCMP ought to be looking at," he said.

"It's devastating for the community, especially when everybody goes to the storeand you've seen these houses here every day and now that it's just bare."

Arson suspected in fire that destroyed 5 homes in Moose Lake, Man.

9 months ago

Duration 2:03

CBC's Zubina Ahmed reports on the New Year's Day fire in Moose Lake, Man., which displaced 18 people.