The chief of Sandy Bay First Nation wants to sue the federal government, following a Tuesday house fire that claimed the life of a nine-year-old girl.

Russell Beaulieu blames overcrowding and says 200 people in his community, 165 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, are on waiting lists to get out of overcrowded homes. The house that caught fire Tuesday was home to 15 people. It burned to the ground in 15 minutes.

Charlie Hill, a long-time aboriginal housing advocate based in Ottawa, said there's no doubt overcrowding costs lives on reserves. The issue was also blamed in a house fire on a British Columbia reserve last month that claimed five lives.

The federal budget promises $400 million over two years to address the housing issue but Hill calls that a drop in the bucket. Even a billion dollars would only begin to address the backlog, he said.

"This has to be realized and it's not being realized. As a matter of fact, it's being downplayed until things like this kind of a fire happen," Hill said.

'We were lucky that only one perished, with 15 people in the house.'— Russell Beaulieu, chief

Beaulieu said it might be time to take the issue to court. He also said Tuesday's tragedy could easily have been worse.

"We were lucky that only one perished, with 15 people in the house," he said.

The man whose home it was, Michael Dumas, had adopted the girl and also took in family members who had nowhere else to go, according to Beaulieu.

"Lack of housing [means] they don't have their own place to live, so it might have been as many as three families living in the house," he said.

Dumas, who is also the head of the community's fire department, is receiving medical treatment for injuries he suffered after trying to get everyone out of the burning house.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation but Beaulieu has been told by the fire commissioner's office that a wood stove is likely to blame.