Winnipeg rooming house fire claims 5th victim

A fifth person has died after a rooming house was torched on the weekend in Winnipeg's Point Douglas neighbourhood.

Robert Curtis Laforte, 56, had been in critical conditionsince the Saturday blaze at the 2-storey home at 288 Austin St. N.but succumbed to his injuries, police said on Monday.

Six adults weretaken to hospital in critical condition and fourwerepronounced dead soon after.

Lulonda Lynn Flett, 40,now faces five counts of second-degree murder andthree counts of attempted murder. Flett had been ordered by the courts to stay away from her sister-in-law, Lynette Harper, whoescaped the fire.

Court records show Flett was handed a conditional sentence last week on assault charges after pleading guilty to participating with another woman in a 2009attack on Harper.

Flett, with no prior criminal record, was to take an anger management course.

Harper was among eight people in the house at the time of the fire. She escaped unscathed along with another resident Marie Flett. The remaining fatalities, all from Winnipeg,are identified as:

• Norman Darius Anderson, 22
• Maureen Claire Harper, 54
• Kenneth Bradley Monkman, 49
• Dean James Stranden, 44

One man, Bradley Anderson, remains in hospital. He was listed in critical condition but has since been upgrade to stable.

Fire officialshave said the blaze likely started near the front entrance, possibly on the veranda, blocking an obvious escape route. The front of the structure wasengulfed when firefighters arrived.

Neighbours told CBC News that the rooming house is often home to people struggling with addictions.

Officials said the house had 13 rooms and that they believed people were alsosleeping in the basement.