Calls for accountability, national Indigenous fire strategy after fatal house fire in Peawanuck

Police have confirmed two adults have died as a result of a major house fire in the remote Cree community of Peawanuck in northern Ontario.

The Nishnawbe Aski Police Service says officers first received a call for service late Thursday evening about a house fire. Late Sunday morning, the service confirmed two fatalities and said three other people remain in hospital.

Members of the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service's North East Crime Unit are investigating the fire, alongside the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshall, Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario, Ontario Forensic Pathology Service, and OPP.

The blaze comes just a year after a 10-year-old girl perished in a house fire in Peawanuck. At the time, the fly-in community of about 250 people near the Hudson Bay coast did not have access to fire services or basic firefighting equipment.

Weenusk First Nation, located in Peawanuck, is in Treaty 9 territory. It is one of 49 communities represented by Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), and one of eight Mushkegowuk Nations under the Mushkegowuk Council.

CBC News previously reported that Indigenous Services Canada purchased a fire truck for Peawanuck in January 2022 for about half a million dollars, and that the community also had plans to build a fire hall. Alison Linklater, then-grand chief of Mushkegowuk Council, said the truck's delivery was delayed because the ice wasn't thick enough on the winter roads to support its weight. The truck was to arrive from Winnipeg by mid-March 2023.

Joyce Hunter is a member of Weenusk First Nation who now lives in Thunder Bay. She is related to the victims and says the two people who died were in their early twenties.

According to Hunter, Peawanuck did receive the fire truck but still doesn't have a fire hall.

CBC News is awaiting a response from Minister of Indigenous Services Patty Hajdu's office regarding the state of fire services in Peawanuck. 

In 2021, the Ontario Chief Coroner reported that First Nation children under 10 are 86 times more likely to die in a fire than non-First Nation children. Meanwhile, First Nation people living on-reserve are five times more likely to die in a fire, according to the National Indigenous Fire Safety Council.

Hunter is calling for a national fire strategy to prevent First Nations from continuing to be disproportionately affected.

"Fire protection is more than trucks and halls. It's about education, it's about prevention, it's about putting measures in place and making sure that every home has working smoke alarms," she said.

"There isn't a regulatory regime for building and fire codes – and then when you couple poor housing conditions and overcrowded conditions, this is a recipe for disaster."

Timmins—James Bay MP Charles Angus expressed his condolences – and frustration – over the fatal fire in a public Facebook post Friday.