Winnipeg’s 144-year-old Manwin Hotel — vacant for a year — burned and collapsed into rubble on Wednesday morning.
Thick smoke choked the early morning air long before the sun came up, as multiple firefighters and an aerial ladder sprayed water on the two-storey structure.
“It’s a total loss. This building will be torn down, demolished once we get the fire out,” said Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service Platoon Chief Steve Kumka, adding no injuries have been reported.
Firefighters were called to the inner-city hotel on Main Street around 3:45 a.m. and Kumka said the fire was already going strong.
“The building was compromised as we arrived. We did not enter the building — it was a defensive strategy,” he said.
Firefighters were called to the hotel around 3:45 a.m. Wednesday, and have shut down Main Street in that area. (Meaghan Ketcheson/CBC)
Buildings on both sides of the hotel were evacuated and firefighters worked to protect them, a City of Winnipeg news release said.
There might be some water damage in those buildings but it appears they were untouched by fire, Kumka said.
Main Street, between Disraeli Freeway and Higgins Avenue, was closed to traffic, as was Logan Avenue, between King Street and Disraeli.
Kumka expects them to remain that way for most of the day Wednesday.
Fire crews spray down rubble from the Manwin Hotel. (Meaghan Ketcheson/CBC)
The hotel, which once served as a long-term residence for dozens of people, had been the subject of dozens of visits by city inspectors over the past several years, and temporarily closed on multiple occasions for health hazards.
It was also the scene of several homicides over the past decade.
In January 2025, the city ordered the hotel to be permanently closed for electrical, structural, fire-safety and other livability issues.
Main Street Project, a non-profit organization that provides services to people experiencing homelessness, addiction and mental health challenges, stands immediately next door to the hotel.
Main Street Project spokesperson Cindy Titus said 150 people were forced out of that building, with 37 moved to the Freight House recreation centre and the others to other shelters.
‘It’s a real fire, let’s go’
Cory Fillion, a client at Main Street Project for a few months, said he woke up to the smell of smoke and then saw it seeping in through the adjoining wall.
Shortly afterwards, firefighters came in and said everyone needed to leave.
“There was a lot of people still sleeping on the beds because a lot of people are disabled there,” he said. “I had to wake a couple of them and said, ‘Yeah, it’s a real fire, let’s go.”
The City of Winnipeg said its emergency social services team is working with Main Street Project staff to provide support to evacuees.
Firefighters will stay at the scene until all hot spots have been extinguished, the city said in a news release.
“The crews will be here probably most of the day,” Kumka said.
During an afternoon news conference, fire-paramedic Chief Christian Schmidt said demolition crews arrived with heavy equipment just after noon in order to remove rubble and allow firefighters to reach hot spots still buried.
WATCH | Crews fight an early morning fire at the Manwin Hotel:
Vacant ManWin Hotel in Winnipeg burns, collapses
Winnipeg’s 144-year-old Manwin Hotel is burning and emergency crews have shut down a stretch of Main Street to battle the flames in the vacant building.
Once everything has fully been extinguished, any remaining walls of the building will be brought down, and then everything will need to be hauled away, he said.
“So I anticipate it likely will be a couple of days before MSP can start to resume their regular operations,” he added.
The Main Street Project building will also need to be inspected before a determination is made on when people can return, said Greg MacPherson, the city’s acting community development manager.
Mayor Scott Gillingham said the demolition-related costs will be passed on to the property owner through property taxes.
“It’s always very, very unfortunate when we lose a heritage building in this city, but I think what has happened today is proof that we made the right call in shutting down the Manwin a year ago,” said Gillingham.
“The building suffered from numerous fire-safety issues, and this could have been a much worse tragedy if there were dozens of people still living there.”
Built in 1882
The hotel first opened in 1882 as the Walker House and was later renamed the Britannia Hotel, according to the Manitoba Historical Society.
It has gone through several names over the years, including Maple Leaf Hotel, National Hotel and eventually the Manwin.
The fire comes almost a year after the 142-year-old Sutherland Hotel, just four blocks away, burned to the ground.
Like the Manwin, it was closed down and boarded up at the time of the fire.
A B.C.-based non-profit organization, which had signed an agreement to buy Sutherland just four days before it went up in flames, planned to convert it into affordable housing.
Following the fire, the head of the Anhart Community Housing Society told CBC News he still hopes to develop something that would have business spaces on the ground floor and as many as 100 affordable rental units on two upper levels.
He estimated it would cost up to $30 million.
But the site, at the corner Main and Sutherland Avenue, remains an empty lot.