KIIWETINOONG – Fire protection in the North needs improvement, Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa said this week.
The New Democrat politician, whose home community is Kingfisher Lake in Northwestern Ontario, was commenting on the Aug. 28 blaze that destroyed a multi-unit residential building in Fort Severn First Nation.
The Fort Severn fire was one of several significant structural fires in Mamakwa’s riding last month, with others including a house fire in Sachigo Lake on Aug. 27 and two fires that destroyed the band office and an abandoned home in North Spirit Lake on Aug. 1.
Kasabonika Lake First Nation suffered the destruction of a historic church by fire, possibly arson-caused, on Aug. 11.
“It’s unacceptable,” Mamakwa said in interview this week. “It’s a tragedy when you do not have any infrastructure, any capacity, any training, any equipment to be able to fight a fire. All you can do is just stare at it and let it burn.”
“There was nothing that was in place” in Fort Severn when the fire broke out, he said. “They had a fire truck, but it was inoperable.
“And that’s the state of the fire suppression equipment and training that is there. First Nations do not have access to (necessary) infrastructure and equipment,” he continued.
“I’ve been here six years in my role as a member of provincial parliament and I keep on seeing it repeating itself – without the proper resourcing from the feds, without the proper resourcing from the provincial government as well.
The community of Fort Severn was “very lucky” no one died from that fire, he said, but “right now there are six families that are homeless.”
