WINNIPEG - The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service says a building that was both a warehouse for the Nygard clothing brand and home to Peter Nygard himself for 40 years has been damaged by fire.
The City of Winnipeg says crews responded to a report of a large fire at 1340 Notre Dame Ave. at 6 a.m. Tuesday morning, advising residents to avoid the intersection of Notre Dame Ave. and Clifton St. When firefighters arrived, they encountered thick flames and smoke. Notre Dame was blocked off traffic between Weston and Flint streets as crews battled the blaze.
The one-storey building is adjacent to a former Nygard clothing storefront and the property was put on the market last year after the company began bankruptcy proceedings. 80-year-old Nygard had said he lived in the warehouse for decades whenever he wasn’t in the Bahamas. Nygard’s lawyer had attempted to convince bankruptcy receivers to allow him to keep the property.
Earlier in October, Nygard signed an agreement for extradition to the U.S., where he is facing sex trafficking and racketeering charges. He’s accused of plying multiple victims in the U.S. and the Bahamas, some of them underage, with promises of modelling careers in order to sexually assault them. The same day Nygard was issued a warrant by the Toronto Police Service on six counts of sexual assault and three counts of forcible confinement alleged to have occurred between 1987 and 2006. He has denied guilt on all charges.
Nygard has been in the Headingley, Manitoba jail since his arrest in Winnipeg on the U.S. warrant in December 2020.
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