A 17-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy were flown to Winnipeg after they were injured in a home fire in the Tataskweyak Cree Nation of northern Manitoba on Saturday that left 49 people displaced.
The fire broke out around 1:30 p.m. in an eight-unit apartment housing ten families, Tataskweyak Cree Nation Chief Taralee Beardy told CBC on Sunday.
“It was quite shocking and devastating,” she said. “The affected families were quite traumatized, especially the families with the injured.”
A 17-year-old woman was on her way to work when she noticed smoke coming from the building. Beardy said the girl helped rescue a family of five from the home but had to be hospitalized for smoke inhalation.
The teenager was airlifted to Children’s Health Sciences Center Hospital along with a 2-year-old boy who suffered burn injuries, she said.
Forty-nine people have now been displaced after the fire in the First Nation, a community over 450 miles north of Winnipeg that Beardy said has a reserve population of about 2,700.
Three families are currently being accommodated at a hotel in the community, but she said more long-term accommodation is needed.
“We have no accommodation. We don’t have a place to put them,” Beardy said. “They need a home.”
Tataskweyak has a fire crew on site, but their fire truck has been inoperable for over a month due to mechanical problems. Beardy hopes the community can get funding for a new truck, as well as support for more permanent housing units.
“Right now we need housing, but [families] also need things like toiletries, household items, cleaning supplies, groceries.”
Fire crews from York Factory First Nation and Gillam, Man., helped put out the blaze before it could spread to a neighboring apartment complex. The cause of the fire is currently unknown.
Beardy said she is grateful for the heroes who helped save people from the fire and for the support from people in her community afterwards.
“It was very nice to see everyone coming together,” she said. “Everyone in our community stood up and helped where they could.”
Roddy Chartrand, an emergency responder, was part of a seven-man crew from the York Factory Fire Department who arrived at the scene around 4:30 p.m
After fighting the fire for nearly three hours, Tataskweyak firefighters were exhausted, he said.
“They were beaten,” he told CBC, adding that crews also struggled with the elements outside as -30 weather resulted in frozen fire hydrants.
His crew helped fight the fire until 3 a.m. Sunday morning, he said, returning to the scene later in the day after learning the fire had started again.
Chartrand is glad that no one lost their life.
“They managed to get everyone out,” he said. “Everyone was taken into account. It was a very tense scene when we got there.”
