Crew lost means to fight fire: volunteer

Keys, phones taken months before fatal blaze at home

SASKATOON Aaron Mccallum says his keys to the Pelican Narrows firehall were taken away months ago, and the last set of volunteer firefighter keys was taken just a couple of months before a fire broke out in a home, killing two men.

The volunteers’ emergency phones — the means by which 911 dispatchers get in touch with them — were taken too, Mccallum told the Starphoenix on Wednesday in online messages.

He said a member of Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation’s council took the phone and keys without giving an explanation as to why it was happening. A couple of months ago, he learned the trained volunteers were being let go and replaced by an “emergency response team,” he said. Shortly after, he took a photo of an emergency response team member who came to the volunteers to ask how to run the pump.

Mccallum said he wants people to know the volunteers couldn’t respond to the Nov. 30 fire, which destroyed a home on Morin Road.

Residents of the community have raised concerns on social media about a delay in the response by the fire service.

A CBC news report said eyewitnesses saw that the firefighters were not able to get water to douse the flames.

“A lot of people are blaming the trained guys for not being there. But we had no access to get in to the hall,” Mccallum wrote.

While he was a firefighter, the response time to calls was usually 10 minutes, which he was told was a decent time for them, since the volunteers don’t stay at the hall, he said.

On Tuesday night, another council member told him the volunteers would be getting their keys and phone back, he added.

He is hopeful things will change with the trained crew back.

“We may not be many, but we still did a good job,” he wrote.

The house was already engulfed in flames when Pelican Narrows RCMP got to the scene of the fire around 10:55 a.m., arriving first, according to RCMP. The community’s emergency response team arrived after that.

The remains of two people were later recovered from the structure.

RCMP have said they do not believe the cause of the fire was suspicious.

Mark Charles, the older brother of two men who did not get out of the home, said their remains are in Saskatoon for an examination by the coroner and won’t be released until later this week. Funeral arrangements are also expected to be made later this week.

Charles said George Sewap, the older of the two, and Craig Sewap were living at the house with George’s girlfriend.

She tried to help George get out of the house, but couldn’t because of an issue with her arm, Charles said. She managed to get out and tried to go back in, but couldn’t, he added.

He described his brothers, who sometimes lived with him in Prince Albert, as very happy and helpful. Funds are now being raised in the community to help the family. Charles said he’s trying to find a way to get to the community to be with family members.

Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation Chief Peter Beatty, who was in Ottawa on Wednesday, said he is awaiting the incident report from PBCN staff and RCMP, and could speak after he receives it. The Prince Albert Grand Council deferred comment to Beatty.

The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency said Wednesday that it has completed its investigation and the cause of the fire has been deemed undetermined.

A 2016 Starphoenix report found that fires on First Nations are about three times more likely to be deadly than off-reserve fires.