'The results were fatal': Fire claims 25-year-old woman’s life in northern community

The RCMP logo is pictured on a police cruiser. (File photo)

A northern Manitoba community is reeling after a fatal fire on Sunday night.

“We had another house fire and unfortunately it took the life of a young woman,” Tataskweyak Cree Nation (TCN) Chief Tara Lee Beardy said in a joint release with other First Nations leaders on Monday.

RCMP and the local fire department responded to a house fire in the community at 11:05 p.m.

After the fire was extinguished, RCMP said firefighters found the body of a 25-year-old woman inside the home.

It was the second significant fire in TCN over the last two months.

In mid-February, an apartment fire left a three-year-old boy with severe burns. Several families were displaced by that blaze.

Chief Beardy, along with leaders from Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) and Keewatin Tribal Council (KTC), are calling on the federal government to address the needs for improved fire safety for remote communities.

“We needed more action from the federal government and didn’t receive it,” KTC Grand Chief Walter Wastesicoot said in the joint release. “We need more action from them to give us the ability to fight fires in our communities.”

Chief Beardy said TCN purchased a fire truck following the February blaze and received it in late March.

“But we had no one available to train our personnel how to properly use it,” Chief Beardy said in the release. “The results were fatal.”

MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee said the organization is preparing its Mobile Crisis Response Team and MMIWG Unit to help the community.

“Everyone feels the loss in a small community when something tragic happens,” Settee said in the joint release.

Thompson RCMP and the Office of the Fire Commissioner, are investigating and the cause of the fire is still not known.