Canada -
News Sections
Four men dead after trailer fire in Manitoba
CTV News Video
|
Watch: See all Videos in the Player
CTVNews.ca Staff
Date: Sat. Feb. 11 2012 10:18 PM ET
Police are probing a tragic fire that killed four men – including a father and his teenaged son – when a blaze destroyed a trailer north of Winnipeg.
Fire crews were called to the trailer in Selkirk early Saturday morning. By then, the trailer was engulfed in flames. Neighbours said they heard booming noises and windows shattering.
A 19-year-old man, who was visiting the trailer, escaped with minor injuries, police told The Canadian Press.
CTV Winnipeg's Rajeev Dhir identified the victims as Lawrence Traverse, 42, his 18-year-old son, Gerald Traverse, Jason Marsh, 39 and Aaron St. Jean, 37.
Two of the men, Lawrence Traverse and Marsh, lived in the trailer.
Marsh's older brother Earland was grief-stricken. He told CTV: "It's really shocking that you get woken up at six o'clock by someone pounding on your door saying, ‘Hey, this is what happened and you don't have a younger brother anymore."
Firefighters said the blaze engulfed every room of the dwelling, reducing it to a burnt shell.
"You're looking at temperatures of probably 1,000 degrees," Mike Partill of the Manitoba Fire Commissioner's office told CTV News.
Police said they're working with fire officials to determine the cause of the blaze.
"We still have more questions than answers but we're quite confident we're going to get to the bottom of this," RCMP Sgt. Line Karpish told CTV News Channel.
"Typically, fires progress quite quickly in these structures," Karpish said.
The trailer was in a trailer park about a 45 minute drive northeast of Winnipeg.
Freda Whiteway, who lives in a trailer across the street from the one that burned, said her family woke up early Saturday to the smell of smoke. Flames were coming from the trailer and firefighters were already on the scene.
Whiteway said the people who lived in the trailer kept neighbours awake with late-night parties.
"I used to get after them all the time to tell them not to party," Whiteway said. "They'd keep my granddaughter awake."
With a report from CTV Winnipeg's Rajeev Dhir and files from The Canadian Press
User Tools
Most Popular
Most Viewed News Stories
Most Talked about Stories
It is about time - as a grandparent I have watched our kids (who were allowed to fail although I do remember some nagging on our part) learn, I have watched our children now micro-manage their children. A big part of it is the fact that there are predators out there and an extreme reluctance on the parents part to alllow freedom that might result in the children becoming victims.
Email