1 person injured after fire at Regina encampment

A fire at an encampment east of downtown Regina early Tuesday afternoon left one individual seriously injured, the city's fire department says.

Regina Fire and Protective Services says it responded to reports of smoke and flames in the Heritage Neighbourhood shortly before 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

The fire on the 1800 block of Halifax Street was fully under control within 10 minutes after crews arrived, the fire department said in a statement.

The fire was unintentional and due to the misuse of an open flame device inside one of the tents, it said. The fire department hasn't given an update on the condition of the injured person yet. 

Tuesday's fire is the second in roughly a year at the same spot. In December last year, a fire broke out in a similar encampment set up by homeless people. 

The fires speak to the threats that homeless people face during colder days, said Chrysta Garner, the development co-ordinator at Carmichael Outreach — a non-profit based near the encampment that provides services to people experiencing poverty and homelessness.

"Unfortunately, with people living in tents, they use different means to keep warm, so there's always that potential hazard" of an accidental fire, she said. 

Garner said saw Tuesday's fire and the rescue operations that followed.

Though she wasn't sure specifically how many, she said the fire is likely to displace "quite a few" people who were living in the encampment.

"There was quite an impact. Now, they will be seeking refuge elsewhere and trying to get whatever means that they had before … back," she said.

"Whether it be clothing, bedding, IDs — all of that will be gone."

The fire happened during Carmichael's lunch hours, and Garner said the outreach agency's building had to be closed for safety purposes. Once the firefighters had the blaze under control, the centre was opened to help those who were displaced, she said.

"We were able to reach out to the community members that we knew were living at the camp and say, 'If you need anything, here's our boutique,'" she said.

"We had lunch services still, so they were able to come in and have some lunch. We offered showers to whoever needed them.… We wanted to make sure that they got themselves calmed down, cleaned up." 

Alysia Johnson, a volunteer with Rally Around Homelessness — a Regina citizen's group that advocates for those who are homeless — says everyone is concerned about the fires and injuries arising from them.

"The thing I've heard from everybody is an overwhelming sense of hoping that people are OK and that there are no life-threatening burns or anything of that nature, because homeless people are already in such a precarious situation," she said.

After an encampment fire in August this year, Regina fire Marshal Randy Ryba said the fire department prepares for encampment fires all year, but more so in the fall months when temperatures start to drop. 

At that point, the city had seen three major encampment fires for the year.

On Wednesday, all that remained at the scene of the latest encampment fire were the charred remains of tents, garbage bins and personal items. 

City of Regina bylaw officials had already posted an official notice directing the property owner to clean up the space. 

Regina officials will take over if it's not done by the property owner, and will pass any costs incurred in the cleanup to the owner through property taxes, the notice said.