By Alex Soloducha

VIDEO: Well-known West Flat building demolished after suspected arson attack

Oct 6, 2015 | 5:30 PM

One of two fires in Prince Albert early Tuesday morning led to a building being demolished on the West Flat.

Wolfgang Manicke, who owns the unique building in the 900 block of 13th St. W., was disappointed to see it go down.

He said he was awakened by the sound of firetrucks at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, but had no idea why they were in the neighbourhood.

“As I came (out) on my balcony, I looked outside and I saw my building was on fire and I yelled to my son and my wife, ‘Oh my God, my building is on fire,’” said Manicke. “I ran down, I wanted to let the fire crews know no one was inside so they didn’t have to go inside. It was used for storage.”

In the newly renovated building, Manicke housed karate and kickboxing equipment for his dojo across the street.

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They will be a hosting a martial arts tournament in two weeks, and due to the fire, much of the equipment, and all of the trophies went up in flames.

In recent years, Manicke had been working on a Japanese garden on the property, which takes up four city lots. He said he thought about converting the building into a Japanese tea house or a traditional dojo.

“I went to the city about three weeks ago. I had wanted to take the second story down… not like that,” he said, pointing to the demolition equipment.  

Manicke said the building was once a grocery store. When he purchased it, all the groceries were still on the shelves from when it closed in 1960.

That’s when the work began. He said he took over 300 loads of garbage to the dump.

“The house was gutted. We put new gas in, new services in. But there was lots of work to be done still,” said Manicke.

After years of planning and improving the property, Manicke is now drawing a blank, and says he’s unsure what they want to do with it now.

Prince Albert Fire Chief Jason Everitt told paNOW the fire, now being investigated, is considered suspicious.

“I don’t know if it was arson or whatever. Just, I’m angry right now, really angry,” said Manicke. “We had four or five break-ins before.

“Just because there’s a for-sale sign on it, people just disrespect it and walk in.”

The for-sale sign appeared when Manicke had thoughts about moving to Nipawin to run a dojo there. Since then, those plans have fallen through and the family has decided to stay in Prince Albert.

Over the summer, symbolic pieces were constantly disappearing from their garden.

“I built this garden and I said, ‘Gee, I want to build something special for Prince Albert, especially for this neighbourhood,” said Manicke. “I wanted to build it so everybody from Prince Albert could come and enjoy it.”

For the last ten years, the building has been transformed into a haunted house every Halloween, with 1,200 kids going through it, said Manicke.

“Now, there’s no more haunted house, nothing,” he continued. “I’m just really angry, I’m flabbergasted.”

He said he doesn’t blame the neighbourhood, though it may have a negative reputation.

“This is not a bad neighbourhood. I’ve lived here now for 20 years,” said Manicke. “It’s just, every so often, we get people walking through the neighbourhood who don’t belong here.

“They usually (bring) all the problems.”

Manicke said he hopes police are able to find the person responsible for the fire, if it is arson. Still, he said there is a positive side.

“For me, it’s really important that nobody got hurt. It could’ve been worse.”

asoloducha@panow.com

On Twitter: @alex_soloducha

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