A police spokesman said the lab was inactive but comprised some “very dangerous chemicals.”
Police took a 27-year-old man into custody and charges are pending.
“It appears he was cooking meth in a third-floor suite at this address,” Const. Blair Good told reporters around 1 a.m. “These are volatile chemicals.”
About 85 residents of 210 Evanson St., a building dubbed The Madison, were evacuated around midnight and the area of Evanson and Preston Avenue was roped off to traffic. Two City of Winnipeg transit buses were parked near the building to give residents a warm place to wait it out.
By 1 a.m., members of the Clandestine Lab Unit donned protective suits, entered the third-floor suite and began removing the toxic substances. The process was expected to take about 90 minutes.
The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service’s Hazardous Materials Unit was on the scene, as was a chemist with Health Canada and an environmental specialist with Manitoba Conservation.
Const. Good said police learned of the drug lab about 8 p.m. and immediately began gathering near the building to organize their entry.
Police say mixing chemicals in clandestine drug labs posed a big risk of explosions, fires, chemical burns and the inhalation of toxic fumes.
Clearly, emergency crews weren’t taking any chances this morning.
“Once we became aware of this, we acted right away. It’s an extremely dangerous situation,” said Good. “The unit will go in and safely dismantle the lab before we start letting people back in.”
Once done the delicate work, the officers exposed to the chemicals were to be decontaminated by the hazardous materials unit.
According to police, only two other meth labs have ever been discovered and dismantled in residential areas of Winnipeg. But investigators believe there are many others that haven’t been found.
At 2 a.m., no fewer than eight police cruiser cars and 10 fire trucks still surrounded the four-storey building, which has gained quite a reputation in the Wolseley neighbourhood.
In March 2007, a man went on a rampage in the communal kitchen of the Madison, stabbing one man to death and seriously injuring another. Police shot and killed the suspect, saying the man had threatened officers
The Madison is a residence run by a non-profit corporation, providing low-cost room and board to residents, including seniors and people with mental, physical or other disabilities.
One neighbourhood resident said early this morning that police, firefighters or paramedics are called to the apartment block “pretty much every day.”
But the man, who wouldn’t give his name, said he’d never seen a “night like this before. We figured with all the fire trucks that they must have found a meth lab.”
The other two meth labs raided by Winnipeg police were believed to be in Fort Rouge and Elmwood, both within the last three years.
The clandestine manufacturing of crystal meth has increased significantly in Canada in recent years.
Just last month, police in Toronto spent several days taking apart what is considered to be the largest methamphetamine laboratory ever discovered in Canada. The lab, located in an industrial area in the west Toronto suburb of Mississauga, was raided April 29 when dozens of officers dressed in white hazardous material suits discovered two kitchens used to cook chemicals.
If someone in Winnipeg believes they’ve discovered an illegal drug lab or the site of an abandoned lab, they should immediately contact police at 986-6222 and stay away from the area of the suspected lab.
