NDP MP presses Indigenous services minister for more firefighting resources for First Nations

Michael Ranger says his stepson is dead after trying to save someone’s life in a community that critics say lacks resources to fight fires.

Jared Guerard, 26, was one of two people who died in a house fire in the remote Cree community of Peawanuck, Ont., on Feb. 1.

Ranger said his stepson was outside the home when the fire started and rushed into the burning building because a young woman was unaccounted for.

“He went in looking for her and they [rescuers] ended up finding them together, wrapped in each other’s arms inside the house,” Ranger said.

“It causes mixed emotions with me as you know one side, you’re proud of him. At the same time, you kind of get angry with him, you know?”

Ranger said his stepson had been planning to return to school to become an educational assistant.

The Nishnawbe Aski Police Service (NAPS) said in a news release Feb. 3 that officers in Peawanuck received a call late the evening of Feb. 1 regarding a major house fire, and confirmed that two adults died and three other people were in hospital.

Police said the investigation into the cause of the fire was ongoing. It’s uncertain how long the house was on fire before rescuers arrived.

Up until last March, Peawanuck, which is near the Hudson Bay coast, did not have a working fire truck. One was flown in several months after a 10-year-old girl died in a house fire.

According to Patty Hajdu, Canada’s minister of Indigenous services, a fire hall to house the truck is currently under construction.

“The incidence of fire and fire-related death is just astronomical,” Hajdu said.

“In fact, a First Nations child is 86 times more likely to die in a house fire than a non-Indigenous child.”

First Nation people living on-reserve are five times more likely to die in a fire, according to the National Indigenous Fire Safety Council.

Hajdu said Canada’s First Nations Fire Protection Strategy, created jointly with the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) last year, acknowledged the risks posed by climate change and called for efforts to build on firefighting expertise in First Nations.