This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Nine people from one family have died in a house fire on a remote aboriginal reserve in Canada’s northern Ontario region, according to media reports on Wednesday.



Robert Nault, the member of parliament for the area that includes Pikangikum First Nation, said the dead include three children. The reserve has been in the news for a high number of suicides among young people and social problems.

Constable Diana Cole of Ontario provincial police said the fire broke out late on Tuesday night in the remote community near the Manitoba-Ontario border.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, and police remain on the scene.

Alvin Fiddler, grand chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which represents First Nations in northern Ontario, said he spoke on Wednesday with the Pikangikum chief, Dean Owen, who sounded exhausted.

“The shock of losing so many people in one tragic event is overwhelming,” Fiddler said.

“Our communities are overwhelmed with suicide at an epidemic level, a health crisis and several states of emergency. These fire-related fatalities are stretching their limited resources to the breaking point,” Fiddler said in a statement later.

“People are dying from overcrowding, unsafe building standards and a lack of basic firefighting equipment, and more lives are at risk. Such tragedies are avoidable, and it is critical that our communities are resourced appropriately to address their needs to ensure their health and safety.”

Canada’s aboriginal people face dire social and economic conditions, including poor housing. Pikangikum is north-west of Thunder Bay, Ontario, and near the Manitoba provincial boundary.

Joseph Magnet, a constitutional law professor at the University of Ottawa who has worked with the community of about 2,100 in the past, said he has been in all the houses there.



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“They’re all wildly overcrowded,” Magnet said. “They’re in outrageous disrepair. They don’t have indoor plumbing. They don’t have adequate water. They wouldn’t meet anybody’s fire code regulations.”

Fatal house fires have become all too common the region’s first nations: in 2014, four people including three children died in a fire in in Mishkeegogamang First Nation; in 2013 two children and their 21-year old aunt died in a fire at Wunnumin Lake First Nation, and two young boys died in a 2011 fire at Nibinamik First Nation.

Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, offered his condolences to the community and said his government will work to improve conditions for aboriginal people.

This report includes material from Reuters and the AP

