{"id":786464,"date":"2026-07-07T17:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T17:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/786464\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T17:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T17:05:10","slug":"shoppers-forced-to-evacuate-after-fire-at-st-vital-walmart-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/786464\/","title":{"rendered":"Shoppers forced to evacuate after fire at St. Vital Walmart \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Walmart at St. Vital Centre was evacuated Monday night after a fire inside the store.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thankful that all Walmart staff and visitors were evacuated safely, everyone was accounted for, and no one was injured,\u201d the shopping centre said in a social media post. \u201cSt. Vital Centre continues to work closely with Walmart, the Winnipeg Police Service, and the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service to assist in any way we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Vital Centre staff said Tuesday morning the Walmart store has not re-opened, and it did not know when it would.<\/p>\n

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Fire is seen at a Walmart at St. Vital Centre on Monday. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The WFPS said in a news release emergency crews were called to a commercial building in the 1200 block of St. Mary\u2019s Road just after 7 p.m. Monday. Firefighters quickly put out the fire after the building\u2019s sprinkler system mostly extinguished the blaze before crews arrived.<\/p>\n

Laura, who was shopping in the grocery aisle at the time, said she heard someone yell, \u201cFire.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI turned around and saw\u2026 thick black smoke and large flames,\u201d she said, adding she tried to take a photo but ended up recording a short video instead. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I could see, it appeared the fire was in the bedding aisle. The sprinklers activated and shortly afterward the emergency alarm began sounding while Walmart announced that everyone needed to evacuate the store. In the minute or so it took me to get outside, the black smoke had intensified and was spreading toward the front of the store.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Sign<\/p>\n

Laura said most people were walking calmly toward the front doors when she was exiting the building.<\/p>\n

Another witness who spoke to the Free Press on Tuesday also said the fire started in the store\u2019s bedding section. <\/p>\n

They said staff did a good job of directing people out of the store as it was being evacuated. <\/p>\n

No injuries were reported. A damage estimate was not immediately available and the cause of the fire is under investigation.<\/p>\n

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Scott<\/p>\n

Scott Billeck
Reporter
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Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade\u2019s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.\u00a0 Read more about Scott<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Walmart at St. Vital Centre was evacuated Monday night after a fire inside the store. \u201cWe are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-786464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}