Indigenous elder dies in weekend house fire
Death toll from on-reserve fires rises to 175 since 2010
Another person has died in a house fire on a First Nations reserve, this time on the Pikwakanagan First Nation, about 90 kilometres west of Arnprior, Ont.
Pikwakanagan First Nation Chief Kirby Whiteduck said the fire happened early Sunday morning and claimed the life of 78-year-old Darwin Bernard.
Sunday’s death brings the total number of people killed in on-reserve house fires to at least 175 since the federal government stopped keeping track in 2010, and one Indigenous fire chief says despite government commitments, Bernard’s death likely won’t be the last.
“I can tell you at least10 or12 (Indigenous) people are going to die this year in Ontario alone,” said Six Nations of the Grand River Fire Chief Matthew Miller.
People who live on First Nations reserves are 10.4 times more likely to die in a fire than anyone else in the country, according to a 2007 Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation report, compiled when the government was still collecting the data.
In February, on the heels of a Star investigation into fatal on-reserve fires, Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett pledged to take action. She promised to create an Indigenous Fire Marshal’s office and new federal legislation that will enact a basic national fire code for First Nations reserves.
Miller particularly wants to see more Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada funding for his fire department to train other volunteer firefighters from remote and semiremote communities.
His department did exactly that in April, graduating 10 volunteer firefighters from its state-of-the-art training facility in Ohsweken, Ont. Indigenous Affairs provided $195,000 to support the Ontario Native Firefighters Society’s 30th annual conference and contest which took place in Thunder Bay this week.
Minister Bennett handed over the letter promising the funding herself, Miller said. In a statement, the department said it “has been working in close co-operation with AFAC (Aboriginal Firefighters Association of Canada) on possible implementation strategies for the Indigenous Fire Marshal’s Office since midMarch, 2017,” work that continues.
Miller said the work to create new legislation is important, but he wants a commitment for more money to fund another round of training in September, and a greater focus on shorter term regional needs.
But Blaine Wiggins, the executive director of AFAC, says that until the underlying challenges in many First Nations are addressed, training more firefighters to put out blazes isn’t the best way to save lives.
“If you’re fighting a house fire, you’re often already too late,” Wiggins said. “It means you’ve failed at everything else, like fire prevention, smoke alarms, etc.”