FIRST NATION CAN’T FIGHT FIRES.
Community grapples with loss of 5 in blaze
A northern Ontario First Nation where a mother and four of her children died in a house fire this week has no means or equipment to fight fires, a spokesman said Friday as the community grappled with its loss.
Sam McKay, spokesman for the chief and council of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, said the community about 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay has a fire truck that doesn’t work, a firehall that was never completed and no fire hoses. There are fire hydrants in some parts of the community of roughly 1,000, but not everywhere, he said. At times, the community has used drinking water delivered there by truck to combat flames but that’s not enough to put them out, he said.
“When there’s a fire, you pretty much stand and look at the building burn and make sure there’s nobody there,” he said. “At this time we were very unfortunate that we lost five people.”
Thursday’s fatal fire happened around 3 or 4 a.m. No one was around to help at first, though some rescue attempts were made later, McKay said. Three people were airlifted to hospital for treatment for smoke inhalation and other injuries after they tried to go into the burning home, he said.
Seamus O’Regan, the federal minister of Indigenous services, expressed his condolences in a tweet Thursday evening and said his department was working to provide assistance to the community.
McKay has said the victims of the fire were a single mother and four of her children — aged six, seven, nine and 12. Her older daughter was away at the time and survived, he said.
A prayer vigil was held at the site Friday morning at the request of the family before police began their investigation, he said.
Ontario’s fire marshal’s office, coroner’s office and forensic pathology service have also been dispatched to the community.
The Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which represents a collection of Indigenous communities in northwestern Ontario, has said a team of crisis and support workers would also be sent there.
The fire has had a “devastating” impact on the community, but residents are rallying to support the victims’ grieving family, McKay said.
“They just can’t really function at this moment and that’s where everybody comes in to provide support in the home, to make sure that they eat ... and stuff like that because they’re in total shock,” he said.
There was no immediate word on what caused the blaze.