One dead after house fire in Ontario First Nation with no firefighters
PIKANGIKUM, Ont. – One person has died following a house fire earlier this week in a remote northwestern Ontario First Nation that has experienced a lack of firefighting resources in recent years.
Pikangikum First Nation, more than 500 kilometers north of Thunder Bay, Ontario, says 11 others, including children, are safe following Tuesday morning’s blaze.
The First Nation says Ontario Provincial Police arrived on the scene within minutes and used fire extinguishers to buy time for firefighting.
They say Indigenous peacekeepers and firefighters arrived and contained the fire within 30 minutes, with the fire extinguished two hours after the initial police call.
Chief Shirley Lynne Keeper calls it yet another tragedy in a string of fire-related deaths that have greatly affected the Indigenous community, who said they felt helpless after nine people died in a house fire in 2016 and three others were killed in a fire in February.
In both cases, Pikangikum said it did not have trained first responders to fight the fires and Keeper said response to the February blaze was hampered because two fire engines were frozen as the community has no suitable building to protect the vehicles. at extremely cold temperatures.
A tribal council representing five First Nations in northwestern Ontario has launched its own training program for aid workers to help the remote communities it represents fight devastating fires, such as those in Pikangikum.
At the end of March, the first class of first responders graduated.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on July 7, 2023.
