Historic Winnipeg building destroyed by fire expected to be total loss

Alex Karpa has the latest on the loss of a historic 144-year-old building in Winnipeg after a fire ripped through the vacant Manwin Hotel on Wednesday.

A 144-year-old building in Winnipeg is now no more after a fire ripped through the vacant Manwin Hotel early Wednesday morning.

Firefighters desperately tried to salvage neighbouring buildings, using aerial ladders and hose lines, but the structure eventually collapsed.

“Our crews worked extremely hard to protect the neighbouring buildings, said Christian Schmidt, who is the Chief of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service. “These are all very important to our community, and I am very grateful to our crews for their hard work in preventing further damage to the buildings in the area.”

Nearby shelter evacuated

The building next door to the Manwin Hotel is the city’s Main Street Project (MSP), a shelter providing essential care and supports to those experiencing homelessness.

MSP executive director Jamil Mahmood found out about the fire when staff received a notification from the building’s fire alarm system.

There were roughly 200 people staying at the shelter at the time of the blaze, and those residents were evacuated temporarily to city buses. Residents were taken to other facilities in the area.

“We sent some staff over to help at the winter pop-up at Salvation Army and then we set up an emergency drop-in centre in partnership with the city’s social services at Freight House Community Centre,” he said. “That will be our temporary drop-in site until we know more about the building.”

The Manwin Hotel building has served as a residency for dozens of people over the last number of years.

Early last year, it was completely vacated after it was plagued by crime and other issues.

The city had ordered the hotel to be permanently closed in January 2025.

Winnipeg’s mayor Scott Gillingham said this fire is proof that the city made the correct call in shutting down the hotel.

“The building suffered from numerous fire safety issues,” he said. “This could’ve been a much worse tragedy if there were people living there.”

“Over the past few years, we have adopted an increasingly strict set of rules for owners of vacant and derelict buildings, and we have done this to ensure the safety of residents, neighbours and our own emergency services personnel,” he said.

Demolition of what’s left of the Manwin Hotel has already begun.

‘Good thing it burned down’

Roger West lived at the Manwin Hotel intermittently for more than a decade. He said it was an extremely unsafe place.

“A lot of people lost their lives there,” he said. “I got jumped there a few times and I even had 14 staples in the back of my head. Too many of our brother and sisters were overdosing or getting jumped and stabbed,” he said. “It was terrible.”

West said there are a ton of vacant buildings in the area and would like to see the city use them to help those who are homeless.

Community advocate Mitch Bourbonniere’s business is just a few doors down from the hotel. He is worried more vacant buildings in the area will end up like this one.

“I fear that most abandoned buildings, or buildings that are empty or boarded up, will eventually become occupied and there is always a risk of someone getting hurt, and we just don’t want that.”

“We don’t know how this fire started, but I am assuming it got occupied, and folks tried to stay warm and maybe started a fire, that’s a likely scenario,” he said. “It’s happened before, and we have lost other buildings.”

The hotel first opened in 1882 and was then known as the Walker House. It was later named the Britannia Hotel.

Around 1915, the hotel was renamed the Maple Leaf Hotel until 1950, when it became known as the National Hotel and subsequently as the Manwin Hotel.

It was temporarily closed multiple times for health hazards and was the site of several homicides before tenants were ordered out last year.