The neglect of Forest View Suites, more commonly known as Princeton Towers, by its owners and the inability of the City of Thompson or any other level of government to force them into compliance with health and safety regulations, especially since they were taken over by receiver Ernst & Young, on behalf of RBC, nearly became a tragedy early Monday morning when a fire, suspected to have been deliberately started, ignited on the fifth floor of the north building and forced its evacuation.
Fortunately, no one died or was seriously injured in the blaze, though smoke filled many floors of the nine-floor building and one person was taken to hospital for smoke inhalation. But the fire not only created a logistical problem for the Red Cross in finding a place for a few hundred people to live, but also disrupted the lives of all those residents, who cannot return to their homes until police, the fire department and Manitoba’s Office of the Fire Commissioner are finished investigating the blaze.
The problems of Princeton Towers have been well-documented, both in this newspaper and on social media, over the last several months as things got progressively worse. Thompson Fire & Emergency Services has been dealing with false alarms from the apartment complex for much of this year. Residents have posted videos of garbage in stairwells, water pouring out of burst pipes, holes in walls and urine, blood and feces in the hallways and stairs. RCMP are called to the towers on a daily basis, and attended calls from that location more than 140 times in the month of June alone. A recent inspection bound 91 deficiencies, most of them related to inadequate lighting and other safety violations. The area around the towers has seen multiple muggings and stabbings this summer alone.
Despite all of this, however, there was apparently little that could legally be done to make the apartment safer and less of a hot spot for trouble.
At a Chamber of Commerce lunch meeting Sept. 18, a couple of members complained about there being too much coverage of crime in this newspaper or in news coverage about Thompson more generally, but unfortunately, bad news doesn’t go away if you stop ignoring it. The example of Princeton Towers shows the possible consequences of not acknowledging problems and dealing with them in an efficient and effective manner. Residents have been complaining about conditions there for quite awhile. And while they often make these complaints on social media, rather than going through official channels like the Residential Tenancies Board or the health department, it isn’t good enough to simply say that that is what they should do and leave it that. People in leadership positions with the city and the province need to take steps to ensure that problems are dealt with. If the fire on Monday had not been reported quickly, if firefighters had not been able to get the fire quickly under control, if something had happened to someone in the process of evacuating the building, this incident might not have been merely the wake-up call about the dangers that exist there that it is. It might have been a tragedy that would have been a real black eye for Thompson when people outside the city discovered that the apartment is a known location for crime and safety violations.
A few hundred people being left homeless for a few days is bad, but as bad as it is, it could have been much worse. Hopefully this scare will prove to be a catalyst for dealing with what is probably the biggest problem spot for crime and other dangers in Thompson. Perhaps in a few months’ time, we will know if it did.
