Residents displaced by Furby Street apartment fire look for new homes, await damage deposits

Some residents from a Furby Street apartment building that caught fire last Sunday are getting ready to move into new homes, while others aren't sure what comes next.

Geraldine Flett has been staying at a hotel in Winnipeg, but she doesn't know where she'll go once her stay ends. She said the lack of support from agencies designed to help in these types of situation has left her "tired, frustrated [and] angry."

"Necessities of life should be covered without hesitation," she told CBC News on Sunday, a week after the fire left residents displaced from their homes.

Flett said Red Cross has paid for some clothing and food, but that only lasts so long. Employment and Income Assistance is paying for residents' hotel stay, but she says that money will be deducted from her income.

The five-storey building at 85 Furby St. caught fire early in the morning of Feb. 11. Winnipeg fire paramedics found heavy smoke and flames coming from the building, and several people were trapped inside their units, the city had said in a new release.

Of around 40 residents in the building, about 30 said they needed help finding temporary living accommodations. Five people were taken to hospital. The city said it won't be providing updates on the people hospitalized.

Residents say the fire was on the fourth floor.

Flett says she's worried for her neighbours in the building, especially those who are older and have mobility issues.

"It's like we're not heard, and nobody can help us because they see us as helpless anyway," said Flett, who uses a walker. 

"It's a sickening cycle of being traumatized of one agency to another."

'Everybody is leaning on each other'

Former resident Susan Pegoraro, who's also staying at the same hotel, said she has a new apartment and is waiting for EIA to pay for moving costs before she moves in. Residents were told they'd have to wait six months to a year to move back in, she said.

But Pegoraro says what she'll miss most about the apartment unit she lived in for 25 years is the people she met while staying there.

"We're a really tight knit group of people," said Pegoraro.

Pegoraro said she remembers how thick the smoke was on the first floor, where her unit is.

"It had already come all the way to that main floor … so I can't even imagine being on the higher floors. I know I wouldn't have survived."

Resident Lorne Davis, 72, said he's also going to miss his neighbours, whom he'd often chat with near the front entrance of the building.

"It was a communal place for everybody to come by and say hello. We would be out there for hours," he told CBC News.

Davis had been living in the building with his wife for two-and-a-half years. Their unit was right next door to the one that caught fire.

"We had to crawl out on our hands and knees," he said.

His neighbours across the street took him and his wife in, and he went back to the unit the next day to grab some belongings.

"There's got to be at least half an inch of soot on everything," he said. "All the walls are black as black can be. You can't tell what's what."

Davis plans on moving back to Poplar River with his wife, who's originally from there. He's also awaiting a damage deposit and prorated rent, which is expected to come on Friday.

"Everybody is leaning on each other now," Davis said.

The city said Sunday that the cause of the fire is still being investigated. CBC asked D7 Properties, which is listed as the management company for the building, for comment about the fire and residents' damage deposits, but a response wasn't received before publication.