Fire at Portage Avenue building causes road closures

The damage to the vacant Portage Avenue building can be seen following the fire on Dec. 16, 2025. (Owen Swinn/CTV News)

A fire at a vacant building on Portage Avenue has forced Tuesday morning road closures in the area.

Just before 5:30 a.m., the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service responded to the blaze at a one-storey building with four empty storefronts at the corner of Portage Avenue and Banning Street.

Images from the scene show severe damage to the building as crew members work to extinguish the fire.

Westbound traffic on Portage is blocked and detoured through a parking lot on Burnell Street.

CTV News has reached out to the City of Winnipeg for more information.

• With files from CTV’s Thandi Vera