Fatal fire on Northern Ontario reserve highlights inadequate resources

A remote Ontario indigenous community is mourning the loss of nine people – three of them small children – who died when fire consumed their crowded home, a recurring tragedy in Canada’s fly-in communities, which often have no running water to douse the flames.

The blaze in Pikangikum broke out late on Tuesday evening and, although the firefighters and police who serve the town of about 3,000 raced to the scene, no one was pulled out alive. The dead were all members of the same family, sources said. They included Dean and Annette Strang; their son, Gilbert, and his partner; their daughter, Faith, and her partner; and Faith’s three children, none of whom was older than five.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/fire-on-first-nation-community-kills-several-people-police-say/article29430753/