Wolseley community comes together 1 week after massive blaze

Two Wolseley institutions are coming together this weekend to help victims of a massive fire that tore through two homes and a condo on April 23.

Members of Westminster United Church and the Bell Tower Community Caf are holding a barbecue and sharing circle Saturday. The event is free, but donations will be acceptedto help those affected by the fire.

The caf is a food security and community building project started in 2013 that operates out of the church. The organization partners with local grocers, restaurants and businesses to donate food to people in need.

Rory Mcleod-Arnold, an organizer with the caf and former president of the University of Winnipeg Students' Union, said the event will give people in the community a chance to come together and have a conversation about what happened.

"The emotional consequences of seeing something traumatic happen in your neighbourhood can be challenging,"he said. "You realize really quickly when these kind of things happen how tightly the ties are that bind."

The early-morning blaze drew crowds of onlookers from their homes near the corner of Westminster Avenue and Maryland Street on Saturday. An unoccupied, multi-storey condo under construction at the Westminster and Maryland intersection was reduced to rubble and ash. The towering inferno spread and destroyed two neighbouring homes, sending six people to hospital with burns and causing an estimated $4.5 million in damage.

• PHOTOS|Wolseley fire rips through multiple homes, leaving melted streetlights, rubble
• Winnipeg woman trapped with sister in wheelchair as massive fire surrounds house
• Maryland fire victim stranded in hospital after wheelchair lost in blaze

A garage fire nearby on the same day was later linked to arson.

Mcleod-Arnold, who lives in the area, said Wolseley is a tight-knit community that needs "to respond with something positive that brings people together."

"There's a logic to the way Wolseley was built that encourages a sense of community,"he said. "We need people to have a response to [the fires]. We need to say, 'No, this is not OK. It's not OK to have these things happen in our community.'"

The public event runs from 12 noonto 2 p.m. Saturday at Westminster United Church. Donations for families displaced by the fire can be dropped off at the church.