Six Nations rallies to help family who lost son
Community donations pour in after fatal fire
People in and outside Six Nations are rallying to support the Ohsweken family who lost three-year-old son Tate and their home in a fire.
Six Nations police and investigators from the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal probed the gutted two-storey home at 1871 Fourth Line over the weekend, but it remained unclear Sunday where or how the fire started.
Nine people lived in the home that caught fire Friday morning, including seven children, ranging in age from a newborn to about nine years old.
Six Nations Fire Chief Matthew Miller suffered smoke inhalation as his team of firefighters rushed into the blazing home to pull an unconscious Tate out from under a second-storey bed, but the three-year-old was later pronounced dead in hospital.
A week-old baby and a one-year-old were also taken to Sick Kids hospital in Toronto in serious condition, but they were released on the weekend and are now with family, said Shelley Bomberry, sister to mother of the children, Sherri.
“It’s good for them, because they need to be with family,” said a tearful Shelley on Sunday. “Those boys, they were brothers and best friends. They had such a bond … It’s difficult, hearing them cry for (Tate).”
Shelley said “Taters” was a quiet, friendly and energetic child, who loved the outdoors.
“He was always out there … You couldn’t keep him indoors, no matter the time of year. He was so full of energy, so full of life.”
She said Sherri and her partner, Trevor McNaughton, are grateful for the “overwhelming” community support, but have asked for privacy while they grieve.
The Six Nations community always comes together in tough times, said band council Chief Ava Hill.
“It’s been a pretty tragic week around here at Six Nations for our community,” Hill said at a news conference Saturday, also noting the sudden death last week of popular band councillor Bob Johnson.
“It is very hard for our community to lose anybody, but especially when it is a young person. We are all one big large family here … Everybody is affected.”
Miller’s voice trembled as he described the efforts taken to reach the trapped child.
“We train every day for this, we do everything we can to prepare for this. Unfortunately, we do not always get the outcome we wish to have,” he said.
Miller also appealed to all residents to consider the fire safety of their homes, pointing to grim federal statistics that suggest people in First Nations communities are 10 times more likely to die in a fire.
“We are living those statistics,” he said, estimating Six Nations firefighters respond to two or three house fires a month.
Within a day, an online fundraising account started by family friend Tiffany Thomas had raised more than $11,000 for the family, which lost their home and all of their belongings.
Thomas said the money may also go to help with funeral arrangement or to cover the cost of family members shuttling back and forth from hospital in Toronto.
“I’m a friend of the family. I have my own four-year-old son. I had to do something,” she said.
Donations of clothes, food and furniture started arriving just hours after the fire was knocked down Friday, at GO Tribalwear, a clothing store in a commercial mall right beside the destroyed home on Fourth Line.
Two vanloads of donations had already left the store by noon Saturday, said owner Veronica Smith.
“It doesn’t stop. It’s amazing,” she said Saturday, watching a lineup of residents forming to offer bottles and baby formula, clothes and winter boots.
Smith said she went to school with the children’s mother, Sherri, and felt compelled to do something to help.
“I was here when it was happening. It was just horrible,” she said. “In this community, everybody helps each other.”
The overwhelming numbers prompted an online message through a family friend late Friday asking for a pause in clothing donations.
But cutlery, paper products and food were still being collected at the James Street Armouries Sunday in Hamilton until 5 p.m., by 150 Hamilton Tiger Squadron, said Cory Chapman.
He said the squadron has a connection to the Bomberry family and wanted to help.
A 7 to 9 p.m. collection Monday night was also planned, if necessary.
“I think everyone who hears the story wants to help,” he said.