Fires all too common in FN communities

Among the greatest dangers of life in a remote northern Aboriginal community during the cold winter months are home fires.

In the past, our homes were surrounded by many dangers associated with fire and the potential for disaster. Since electrical heating can be expensive and even prohibitive for some Native communities, people resort to wood stoves.

During my childhood in Attawapiskat, the iron woodstove at the centre of our home was a normal part of life. Mom and dad always assigned us the daily chore of bringing in an armload of wood whenever we came through the door. We were cautioned to stay away from the hot stove and our parents kept a close eye on the baking pipes and stray sparks that fell when the stove door was opened.

The odds seemed stacked against us. We lived in substandard homes with insufficient insulation even though we were situated in the one of the coldest regions of the country. This meant we relied heavily on wood heat. Others relied on electrical heating which also could be hazardous as heaters running continually on high could catch fire.

I remember as a child that it was a normal part of every winter to hear the screams of “fire,” as some poor unfortunate family would have their home go up in flames. We would all run out to investigate and thankfully much of the time the fires were small and quickly extinguished by quick-thinking individuals with little or no fire training. At times the fires were terrible and resulted in the loss of life or severe injury.

Some terrible memories came back to me when I read of a house fire at the Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation in Saskatchewan recently, where two small children died. The fact that the community was no longer able to run its own fire services and instead had to rely on outside help rang all too familiar to me. I was reminded of the great difficulties my home community and many other First Nations across Canada have to face on an ongoing basis when it comes to fire protection.

On several occasions in Attawapiskat, we watched in horror as homes burned with people trapped in them. A tragic fire in a small remote First Nation hits everyone so hard as everyone is so close knit. There are few things worse than being part of a helpless crowd looking on as flames devour a home.

Although things have progressed over the past 20 years, there are still many challenges for First Nations when it comes to fire protection. In many cases there is just not enough funding to put together a state-of-the-art volunteer firefighting service. Adequate management and training are lacking.

Due to the fact that many homes are still heated by wood and these houses are not well insulated, the chance of a fire during freezing temperatures is great. People are forced to maintain roaring fires in their stoves or use constant full-on electrical heating to keep warm. In addition, there is a housing crisis in First Nations across Canada and often homes are crammed with too many people.

These conditions produce the environment for tragic fires such as the one in Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation. There is a need for more funding, better management and training for the volunteer firefighters and the development of decent housing. It is time for the governments – non-Native and Native – to step up and tackle this problem.