'It happened so quick:' good Samaritan extinguished Walmart fire

A Winnipeg man shopping at Walmart says he ran to help after hearing a woman yell fire.

Last night at around 7:30 p.m. Tony Lopes was shopping at Walmart on Regent Avenue. He says he heard a lady call for help, yelling "fire" but did not see smoke.

Hearing her call fire again, Lopes walked towards the area, seeing a rack of women's underwear on fire. Once seeing the fire, he ran to an employee, asking for a fire extinguisher.

He says it took a minute before he was handed the extinguisher. Lopes says he emptied two extinguishers putting out the fire.

At that time, he says the store's alarms were going off and people were evacuating. Lopes says there were large amounts of smoke at this time.

"It happens so quick," he says.

Lopes says a few employees were around him, so Lopes asked them for a shopping cart and shovel.

Next, he put the smouldering clothing into the cart, taking it outside.

After five minutes, he says the store manager arrived. He adds that it took fire crews 10-15 minutes to arrive.

Now that the fire was put out, Lopes wanted to find the woman who yelled fire but had no luck.

"She literally vanished. That was kind of odd."

Giving his info to the manager, Lopes returned home. He says he received a call from the police at 8:59 p.m. to give his report of what happened.