SASKATOON
Saskatoon

    • Saskatoon house fire sends one person to hospital

    Share

    One person has been taken to hospital after a house fire in the Richmond Heights neighborhood Friday morning.

    The Saskatoon Fire Department (SFD) said crews were called to a house fire on Rupert Drive shortly after 9 a.m.

    Firefighters could be seen performing lifesaving efforts on several dogs, but witnesses say they didn’t survive.

    Fawn Seed, a resident of the home, said she woke up to her roommates yelling for a fire extinguisher.

    “And then next thing I just see is flames and smoke,” she said.

    Seed then woke up her other roommate Myron Lafleur.

    “I pretty much, just half naked, jumped out my window, didn't even really think about it cause my room was already filled with smoke, so I didn't really know the extent of the fire,” Lafleur told CTV News.

    (Chad Hills/CTV News)

    Lafleur said he’s a musician who lost multiple instruments in the fire.

    “I'm obviously glad everybody's okay for the most part, but just for me financially right now, it’s a bit of a bummer,” he said.

    The SFD said the fire is being investigated.

    “Life happens, I'm just glad to be alive. My service dog is okay. We lost everything, but we got neighbors, we got people helping out,” she said.

    CTVNews.ca Top Stories

    A man who has brain damage has a murder conviction reversed after a 34-year fight

    A man who has brain damage and was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a shopkeeper in London had his decades-old conviction quashed Wednesday by an appeals court troubled by the possibility police elicited a false confession from a mentally vulnerable man. Oliver Campbell, who suffered cognitive impairment as a baby and struggles with his concentration and memory, was 21 when he was jailed in 1991 after being convicted based partly on admissions his lawyer said were coerced. “The fight for justice is finally over after nearly 34 years," Campbell said. “I can start my life an innocent man.” Campbell, now in his 50s, was convicted of the robbery and murder of Baldev Hoondle, who was shot in the head in his shop in the Hackney area of east London in July 1990. He had a previous appeal rejected in 1994 and was released from prison in 2002 on conditions that could have returned him to prison if he got into trouble. Defense lawyer Michael Birnbaum said police lied to Campbell and “badgered and bullied” him into giving a false confession by admitting he pulled the trigger in an accident. He was interviewed more than a dozen times, including sessions without either a lawyer or other adult present. His learning disability put him “out of his depth” and he was "simply unable to do justice to himself,” Birnbaum said. He said the admissions were nonsense riddled with inconsistencies that contradicted facts in the case. At trial, he testified that he was not involved in the robbery and had been somewhere else though he couldn't remember where. A co-defendant, Eric Samuels, who has since died, pleaded guilty to the robbery and was sentenced to five years in prison. At the time, he told his lawyer Campbell was not the gunman and later told others Campbell wasn’t with him during the robbery. Lawyers continued to advocate for Campbell that he wasn't the killer and his case was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission which investigates potential injustices. The three judges on the Court of Appeal rejected most of Birnbaum's grounds for appeal but said they were troubled by the conviction in light of a new understanding of the reliability of admissions from someone with a mental disability. The panel quashed the conviction as 'unsafe,' and refused to order a retrial.

    Shopping Trends

    The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at CTV News. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop. Read about us.

    Regina

    Winnipeg

    Edmonton

    Calgary

    Lethbridge

    Toronto

    Ottawa

    Montreal

    Vancouver

    Kelowna

    Vancouver Island

    London

    Kitchener

    Northern Ontario

    Atlantic

    N.L.

    Stay Connected
    Follow CTV News