William White residents want abandoned home demolished after burning multiple times

It’s been a pile of rubble for years. Residents of the William White neighbourhood want the demolished husk of a burned-down home removed.

“It’s ugly, we’ve got to sit and look at this every day,” said Leo Fradin, who lives across the street. “I have to stare out the window every day and see a pile of trash – the only time it was good is when there is snow on it.”

Calling it an eye sore, dangerous, and saying it’s been like this for years, William White residents are asking the city to remove the remains of a building that was demolished – but never cleaned up.

Photo of abandoned home that has burned multiple times. (Photo Credit: Mike Albanese, CityNews)

“We’re always scared that kids in the neighbourhood are going to play in there – who knows, start it on fire? They started the house on fire, why not start the pile on fire.”

Fradin lives across the street from the debris pile on Salter. It’s in direct sight of his front windows, and he says the house burned numerous times before it was torn down.

“I always thought maybe somebody would force the owner to do something with the property. If he owes taxes on it it should be gone, it should be repossessed, that’s it, done, finished – pretty simple task,” explained Fradin.

Photo of abandoned home that has burned multiple times. (Photo Credit: Mike Albanese, CityNews)

He’s wondering why the city left the building in ruins for years and so is neighbourhood association president Darrell Warren.

“It’s very dangerous, and the bad thing is, they go ahead and knock these fences – because as you see behind me it’s only a temporary fence, really doesn’t stop anything, people go in there, and I’m afraid of the kids that go through there and start picking through it,” said Warren.

He says people now use this as a garbage dump and that’s seconded by a Winnipegger who is helping out a refugee family living next door, who weren’t comfortable enough with their English to speak to CityNews themselves.

“They have five little kids in this family. It’s just not healthy. It would so nice if it was just green grass where they could play, or at least where there wasn’t garbage dumped all the time.”

Photo of abandoned home that has burned multiple times. (Photo Credit: Mike Albanese, CityNews)

He says people throw old mattresses and garbage in the lot, and then people hop the fence at night to root through it, it’s skewed the perspective of Canada these refugees hold.

“People coming from Eritrea, a war-torn country. They think this is normal, but it’s not normal!”

CityNews reached out to the city for a comment on the property, and to find out exactly how many years it’s laid in waste and why, but did not hear back by at this time.