PIKANGIKUM FIRST NATION — One person has been confirmed dead, while two others remain missing, after a house fire earlier this week.
The community provided an update Friday evening, confirming the fatality, after provincial police had previously said that three people were unaccounted for following the Wednesday evening blaze.
"Our community is devastated to have yet another loss due to a horrific house fire," Pikangikum Chief Shirley Lynne Keeper said in a statement. "We should not be experiencing this again.
"We have never felt so hopeless. Our ability to fight structural fires has not improved since 2016. Our fire trucks were frozen because we don't have an adequate building to keep them warm."
The fatal fire comes seven years after nine people, including two young children and an infant, lost their lives after a house fire in Pikangikum on March 29, 2016.
"This has affected us greatly. We never wanted to see this happen again," Keeper said. "The government's response to date has been unacceptable. No more words, we need action from the government to provide proper fire services in our community of 4,000 people."
