The Toronto Star has been recognized by the international Online Journalism Awards in three categories that celebrate excellence and innovation in digital journalism.

A Star investigation of fire-related deaths in First Nations communities by reporters Alicja Siekierska and Jesse Winter is a finalist for the Knight Award for Public Service.

The investigation, published in February, revealed that at least 173 people — 25 of them children — have died in house fires since the Canadian government stopped tracking such incidents in 2010. Both Winter and Siekierska tracked down the families affected by the fires, professional firefighters and volunteers in Indigenous communities in Northern Ontario.

As a result of their investigation, Canada’s Indigenous Affairs minister, Carolyn Bennett, pledged to track fire deaths on federal reserves and establish an Indigenous fire marshal’s office, something that many groups had been calling for years.

Read the nominated pieces here:

Fire and death in Canada’s First Nations

Bound. Tortured. Killed.

Other nominees in the category were from the Reno Gazette-Journal, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Oregonia/OregonLive.

Another Star special project that collated the unpublished photos and videos of Iraqi photojournalist Ali Arkady, who was embedded with an elite unit of Iraqi soldiers fighting Daesh, was nominated for Excellence and Innovation in Visual Digital Storytelling by a large newsroom.

Written by reporters Mitch Potter, Michelle Shephard and Bruce Campion-Smith and published in May, the feature put Arkady’s photos front and centre, illustrating the torture and murder of civilians by Iraqi soldiers whose intentions Arkady misunderstood.

The other nominees are from the New York Times and the Washington Post.

The Star is also a finalist for the Pro-Am Student Award, a category that recognizes student-led projects that expertly uses digital storytelling, for publishing part of the Surviving Cities series, which told the stories of people who are coping with the challenge of living in cities that are quickly changing.

The project was a partnership led by the University of British Columbia and four universities in Colombia, India and China. It was published with the support of the BBC, the Guardian and the Star.

The Star’s digital team worked with the student journalists who provided text, video and graphics for Expelled by Beijing, which documented the struggle of rural migrant families to get an education for their children.

“It’s extremely gratifying that the Star’s commitment to investigations and stories that make a difference is being recognized as producing work that’s among the best of digital journalism around the world,” Star editor-in-chief Michael Cooke said.

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“Fire and Death in Canada’s First Nations is a powerful example of public service, enterprising reporting that can help change lives. The harrowing revelations in Bound, Tortured and Killed gained a stunning and unforgettable power through visual storytelling. I’m thrilled that the dedication of the newsroom to vital, deeply reported and thoughtfully presented stories are being recognized in these three nominations.”

Winners of the 2017 OJAs will be announced at the Online News Association Conference and Awards Banquet on Oct. 7, in Washington.

The awards recognize the best in digital, immersive storytelling, representing a wide range of non-profit, public, academic, major and emerging technology organizations.