One child died and two adults were able to escape after a fire broke out at a home in a northwestern Ontario community Tuesday.
Nishnawbe Aski Police Service said its crime unit is investigating the fatal fire in Sandy Lake First Nation with the help of Ontario Provincial Police and the Ontario Office of the Fire Marshal.
A report about the fire was made by someone who walked in the detachment the afternoon of Feb. 25, saying a home was on fire near the community’s Northern Store, police said.
“When police arrived on scene they observed the home to be completely engulfed in flames. Community firefighters also arrived on scene and worked to extinguish the blaze,” police said in a news release.
“Police learned two people had escaped from the home and were transported to the community nursing station for further evaluation and treatment of their injuries. Those injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.”
The two people who escaped the fire were adults, police spokesperson Scott Paradis confirmed to CTVNewsNorthernOntario.ca in an email Friday.
Body found
The remains of a third occupant, a child, were found the next day.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said in a social media post Thursday that he travelled to the First Nation community to pay his respects to the family.
“Today I travelled up to Sandy Lake First Nation to go pay my respect to Ennis Fiddler and his family. We will miss him greatly,” Fiddler said.
“I also went to go offer my prayers and semma to the place where four-year-old Ronin Fiddler lost his life in a house fire two days ago. His remains were taken out early this morning."
Sol Mamakwa has been re-elected as MPP for a third term in the northwestern Ontario riding of Kiiwetinoong, which includes Sandy Lake.
In a Zoom interview with CTV News on Friday afternoon, he said he was sad to hear a little boy perished in the fire.
“It just keeps on happening over and over again,” Mamakwa said.
“And as we know, back in 2021, the Ontario chief coroner reported that First Nations under 10 are 86 times more likely, you know, to die in a fire, then non-First Nations.”
First Nation People living on reserve are five times more likely to die in a fire according to the National Indigenous Fire Safety Council, he added.
Overcrowded housing a problem
Three families were living in the home that burned down, Mamakwa said.
“That just signifies, alerts us(to) the overcrowding, the need, (and) the shortage of housing,” he said.
The community fire response team didn’t have enough time to respond, he said, as the fire in the “fairly new house” went up really fast.
“It’s very tragic and it just seems, you know, over and over again in the riding of Kiiwetinoong it’s something that we keep on seeing happening and it’s unacceptable.
Preventable tragedy
Three children died in a house fire in the same community in January 2022.
“Despite the countless inquests and reports and recommendations, our communities and families still find themselves faced with unspeakable, and most often, preventable tragedy,” Fiddler said.
“We need to do better.”
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Mamakwa said the province’s response to the triple fatal fire in 2022 was to make sure all the homes had smoke alarms.
“I think we’ve got to do better than that,” the MPP-elect said.
“Whereby you know, we ensure that we have the infrastructure and the training to do fire suppression.”
Remote communities need to have adequate infrastructure and access to proper water services, water pressure, fire trucks, buildings to store the fire trucks, equipment and training, Mamakwa added.
“At best, there’s minimal training, at worst, there’s no training …. That’s the crisis that we’re in,” he said.
“The first line of defence, again, is … prevention and we need to be able to have these prevention officers … work with … families, homes in each of the First Nations, but nothing is happening.”
Cause not yet confirmed
Paradis said the investigation into the blaze and death is continuing.
“Right now, the cause of the fire remains unconfirmed and for that reason, we will continue to treat it as suspicious until evidence determines otherwise,” he said.
The Indigenous police service serves 34 First Nations within the Nishnawbe Aski Nation territory from the Manitoba border up the James Bay Coast to the Quebec Border.
