Lack of firefighter training as well as inadequate equipment and communications systems are some of the factors that an inquest identified as having played a role in two 2011 fires in Northern Manitoba that killed four people, all but one of whom were three years old or younger.
Errabella Harper, a two-and-a-half-month-old baby, died Jan. 16, 2011 when a house in St. Theresa Point where she and five other children were sleeping caught fire. People who saw the fire and came to help were unable to gain access to the bedroom she was sleeping in because there were blankets covering the window. Errabella Harper was pulled out of the house when someone broke the window and another person used a chainsaw to cut a hole in the wall. The other children, who ranged in age from one to 13, all managed to escape or were rescued.
Seventy-three-year-old Demus James, three-year-old Kayleigh Okemow and two-year-old Throne Kirkness died in a fire in God’s Lake First Nation on March 14, 2011. People who arrived on the scene had to kick in the front door of that house because it was locked or blocked from the inside and had trouble gaining access through the windows because they were covered with plastic. None of the three victims made it out of the house before the fire was put out.
Inquest Judge Tracey Lord heard that Errabella Harper’s grandmother, who lived with her daughter and their six children in the home that burned down, was next door cooking and cleaning for her parents when the fire broke out, while Errabella’s mother was not at home. The cause of the fire was determined to be hot gases from the wood stove escaping from the chimney system and into the attic area, which caused the insulation and wood framing system to ignite. At the time the fire occurred, homes heated by wood stoves – which numbered somewhere between 30 and 60 of the 568 homes in the community – were not being inspected and there was not a functioning fire truck nor any official fire department.
In God’s Lake First Nation, the home where James, Okemow and Kirkness died had baseboard heaters that sometimes sparked and James was known to turn them up high. The front door of the home did not close properly because of ice buildup and the residents propped a piece of wood up against it at night to keep it closed. There were two smoke detectors, one of which was covered with toilet paper to keep it from going off. An Office of the Fire Commissioner investigator told the inquest that the baseboard heater in the living room may have been the cause of the fire. There was a fire truck in God’s Lake First Nation at the time of the fire but it was inoperable and could not be repaired. There was also no firefighting plan in place for the community and no fire chief.
The inquest also heard that a survey of 61 First Nations conducted by Tim Langevin, an experienced firefighter, for the Office of the Fire Commissioner, found that 93 per cent of them had no written fire protection plan, 28 per cent had no fire truck, 39 per cent had no fire hall and fewer than 20 per cent had fire prevention inspection programs.
Lord recommended that both St. Theresa Point First Nation and God’s Lake First Nation develop written fire protection plans and annual home inspection programs, commit to providing ongoing training for community firefighters and prepare operating guidelines and maintenance schedules for firefighting equipment, vehicles and buildings. She also recommended that 911 service or a local dispatch service be established in all First Nations.
