A Winnipeg man who died in a house fire Saturday night is being remembered as a friendly, intelligent and eccentric character, who was passionate about horticulture and nature.
Neighbours have identified the victim as 81-year-old Jim Russell.
“He was a great person,” said Peggy Mercer, who lived next door to Russell for roughly 40 years. “He was very knowledgeable about many things, but very dedicated to nature.”
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
City police and firefighters responded to a blaze in a home at 682 Nassau Street South around 11:30 p.m.
City police and firefighters responded to a blaze in a home at 682 Nassau Street South around 11:30 p.m. They were unable to enter “due to the intensity of the fire,” the Winnipeg Police Service said in a news release Tuesday.
Fire crews declared the blaze under control shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday, but the home had been destroyed.
The body of the victim was found during the systematic room-by-room demolition; firefighters rappelled into the house from the bucket of an aerial ladder to retrieve the body, the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service said.
Russell, who lived alone, was known as a friendly person who was eager to help others take care of their plants. He was talkative and would stop passersby to chat. Despite his age, Russell was still mobile, and Mercer said she saw him walking on the street last week.
His house stood out on the block because it was surrounded by a large pollinator garden that he had planted and cultivated for more than a decade, said another neighbour, Mary Ann Steggles.
Steggles, who had known Russell for nearly three decades, said he told her he studied math at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY., before moving to Winnipeg and beginning a 20-year career as a postal worker.
“He was one of the most interesting, eccentric, intelligent people,” Steggles said. “He was very concerned about the environment, he was very well read and he could hold a conversation with people almost about anything if it concerned math or science, or plants or the solar system.”
Mercer said Russell was particularly interested in lilies.
“When we moved in, his yard was just beautiful. It was so full of lilies and flowers, it was quite pleasant to look at,” she said.
An article on the Manitoba Regional Lily Society website names Russell as the founding treasurer of the organization, which formed in the 1980s.
Deborah Petrie, one of the society’s directors, said she did not know Russell well, but had met him occasionally and recognized him as a longtime member.
Both Mercer and Steggles said they had grown concerned in recent years about Russell’s ability to maintain the garden, which was becoming increasingly overgrown.
Mercer said she was worried the overgrowth could make it difficult to get to the house in the event of an emergency, she said.
“We knew he was having a tough time the last couple of years,” she said. “He did clean up his yard a bit, but once you get to a certain age, it just becomes too much and it was becoming a problem.”
A City of Winnipeg spokesperson said the city has no record of complaints or enforcement history related to the garden.
Mercer was watching television and her husband was asleep when a police officer pounded on their front door and ordered them to evacuate. The couple spent the night watching firefighters work, at one point seeking warmth and shelter in the back of a police cruiser, she said.
She credited fire crews for saving her home from being damaged, noting it is just a few feet away from Russell’s, and at one point “flames were shooting from the windows.”
Steggles said she was alerted to the fire at Russell’s home around 11:20 p.m. because her dog started barking.
Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter
“The house went up very quickly. I would say by midnight, the roof was on fire.”
News of Russell’s death rocked people in the neighbourhood, some of whom shared their contact details with each other in the event of an emergency, Steggles said.
Police said the victim’s family members have been notified and the cause of the fire is not believed to be suspicious.
It’s the second recent fatal fire in Manitoba. On Sunday, 12-year-old Alexander Beaulieu Jr. died in a house fire in Portage la Prairie.
tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca
Tyler Searle
Reporter
Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.
Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Comments are closed.