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First Nations struggle to cope with dramatic rise in fire deaths
Last Updated: Monday, January 17, 2000 | 2:08 PM ET
CBC News
There are growing concerns about the number of deaths caused by fires in First Nations communities in the province. Last year, 15 people died in fires, compared with one person the year before.
In a recent incident, a four-year-old boy and his four-month-old sister died after a house fire at Sandy Bay First Nation on Boxing Day.
Five houses on the Bloodvein First Nation burned last year, and one man died in a fire. Chief Louis Young says the fire problem is caused by poor housing conditions."The homes have been built as cheap as possible. There's not much maintenance money to keep the buildings in shape so sometimes the wiring may go or sometimes other things might go and we have no control over those things."
Young says more government funding is needed to improve housing and to hire firefighters for the reserve.
The provincial fire commissioner's office says First Nations should be providing more fire prevention education.
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