WEBEQUIE FIRST NATION — A family is homeless after fire destroyed a recently-constructed house on the Webequie First Nation, 540 km north of Thunder Bay.
Chief Cornelius Wabassse said Monday's fire, fortunately, did not claim any lives, but razed a residence occupied by a family of six – including an infant – which also lost all their belongings.
He said it also caused smoke damage to an adjacent home, and has led to some issues with electrical power and the provision of clean drinking water.
"The water situation has not been resolved to date, but is expected to be in the near future," said a statement issued by the First Nation late Tuesday afternoon.
Wabasse said the community continues to struggle to provide adequate community infrastructure while the study for the proposed Ring of Fire supply road continues.
"It is truly unfortunate that when a house fire occurs, it takes a minimum of one to three years to replace it, and while so doing, our housing list backlog increases, and so too does overcrowding in homes. It is a vicious circle that we need help escaping," he said.
Webequie First Nation has raised concerns about its inability to provide adequate infrastructure after fires in the past, including the loss of a new four-plex in August 2022 and a home occupied by a family of eight in April 2023.
Although the community received a wildfire rapid-attack bush truck in March of this year, it was unable to extinguish Monday's fire.
Further details about the incident were not immediately available.
