‘Disaster’ on First Nation as fire razes water plant
CARRY THE KETTLE NAKODA NATION When band councillor Scott Eashappie first heard of a fire at the water-treatment plant, he jumped into action to help.
“(I was) very scared. I was just sitting on the couch, relaxing and watching TV. Then I got the phone call and I just put on my shoes, grabbed my sweater and ran out the door. I was kind of in disbelief,” he said.
“When I saw (the fire) I kind of panicked a little bit, but I tried to remain calm.”
Eashappie, who lives about 400 yards from the plant, said smoke was reaching about 30 metres into the air. After noticing chemicals coming from the smoke, he began running from door to door, evacuating about 30 homes within the “core area” by the plant.
Residents near the water-treatment plant were relocated to the town hall for the night, but were able to go home Tuesday morning.
“The wind was carrying (the smoke) to all the homes, and it was a strong, strong smell. Because when we did our double check, I inhaled some and was coughing after for probably six hours straight, just from the chemicals that are in there to sterilize the water before using it,” Eashappie said.
The Wolseley fire department and File Hills police went to the scene, and the fire was out by roughly 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. But it has left Carry the Kettle Nakoda Nation in a state of emergency — without running water.
“It’s a disaster,” said band councillor Shawn Spencer. “What’s keeping us strong is the support, community members being optimistic, and knowing we’re going to succeed through this.”
The water-treatment plant served all of the roughly 230 homes in the community.
For Holly Thomson, the first thing she thought of when she heard about the fire was the safety of the community.
“During the night I was getting text messages from community members saying the fire had started and whatnot, ( but) this morning it came to the fact that our water treatment is gone,” she said.
“Water is sustenance for all of us — day to day use, we need that. I thought about the capacity of the community, like what we have to be able to help our community during this time.”
Thomson and her husband have two kids, and she says not being able to have access to water is stressful. Her brother lives off-reserve and her family is able to go there, but she worries about the people and families in the community who don’t have that luxury.
Thomson arrived at the town hall at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, to help the rest of the community, including making sandwiches with donated food. From what she’s seen, the support has been incredible, she says.
“Our community has been going through hard times in the past little while (but) I feel like we’re really fortunate and blessed,” she said. “I believe that we’ll pull together and everything will work out.”
Already the First Nation has been receiving support from Regina and the surrounding community, with people sending in bottled water and local farmers asking how they can help.
At the moment, Spencer said the most help would be bringing jugs of water to the town hall, where it can be distributed to those who need it.
“As soon as the water is coming in, as you can see it’s already gone. People are coming and going, getting water. We have men in the community coming and picking up water and delivering it to homes, so it’s in and out right away,” he said.
For now, Spencer says they’re looking to house elders in hotels, where water is available.
“We haven’t experienced this so we don’t really know what to anticipate. We’re just kind of going step by step,” he said.
Piapot First Nation was in a similar situation in October when its water plant burned down. Spencer hopes to reach out to that reserve for insight into what rebuilding might look like. But currently, he says, there’s no timeline of when the plant may be rebuilt.
Carry the Kettle Nakoda Nation is about 100 km east of Regina.