Fire destroys rink

Thistle club torched, fear investigators

Demolition of the charred wreckage was delayed when ammonia refrigerant was released. (JESSE JOHNSTON, Sun)

Arson reduced 85 years of curling history to rubble early Saturday morning, destroying the Thistle Curling Club and damaging two adjacent homes and two garages.

Damage was estimated at $2 million, said a Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service official.

Firefighters were alerted at 3:53 a.m. but couldn't save the wood-framed building.

"I'm flabbergasted. You're always worried about getting a call like that (in the middle of the night)," said 36-year club-member Harvey Swain last night. "I just came by the place. It's flattened."

Investigators believe the fire was set at the rear of the building and was most likely connected to a number of garage and garbage-bin fires in the West End that kept firefighters busy Friday evening overnight.

Shortly after Mike Winterhalt, his wife and two daughters left their home beside the club, its roof caught fire.

Home damaged

"I looked out the window and it was just a huge ball of fire," said Winterhalt.

No one in the family was injured, but the home had fire damage to its second floor and smoke and water damage throughout.

The family pet cat Tinkerbell hid inside the home during the fire, but survived and is now staying with a neighbour.

"I'm just overwhelmed," said Winterhalt, adding his upstairs tenants will be hurt the most, as he suspects the couple didn't have renters' insurance.

Neighbourhood resident Paulo Leitao said he witnessed flames blowing out about three metres from the curling club.

"Firemen were stringing their hoses from hydrants two blocks away," he said.

The heat from the flames was so great, the vinyl siding melted on a Goulding Street home about 100 feet away.

Demolition was delayed by an ammonia leak around noon that sent a police officer and contractor Wayne Imrie to hospital. They were treated and released.

"They got a whiff of ammonia," said Imrie's son Ward, who was forced to quit demolition work on the old rink when he detected a trace of ammonia.

About 500 pounds of the chemical used in the ice plant had to be flushed from the tank before demolition could continue, said Imrie.

The leak forced the evacuation of about a dozen Minto and Goulding homes downwind from the still smouldering rubble. Both streets were expected to be closed to traffic between St. Matthews and Ellice avenues until late last evening.

Residents of several homes on Minto and Goulding Streets were forced to flee their homes for three hours or more.

"I looked out my bathroom window and there was just a wall of fire. It was terrifying," said Barb Snidal, who lives next door to Winterhalt and was forced out of her home for three hours.

Snidal's home narrowly escaped damage, as the flames pushed near a line of trees that divides her yard from her neighbours'.

"That would have caught on to our house for sure," she said, pointing to the trees bordered by two charred garages. "The devastation from the backyards looks like a war zone."

The executive director of the Manitoba Curling Association was shocked when told about the fire by the Sun.

"That's a tragedy. I'm shocked," said Ian Staniloff. "That is a terrible loss for city curling -- the club was an original member of the MCA."