Overcrowding, substandard housing associated with First Nation fire deaths, report finds

A new report released by Statistics Canada confirms that Indigenous people are dying in fires at rates higher than the rest of the population, and many of those fires are occurring in overcrowded, substandard housing. 

Twenty per cent of a sample group of 700 people who died in fires between 2011 and 2020 were Indigenous, according to the report, which was sponsored by the National Indigenous Fire Safety Council (NIFSC), which in turn is funded by Indigenous Services Canada.

Indigenous people make up slightly less than five per cent of the Canadian population.

What's more, more than half of Indigenous people who died in residential fires lived in residences that needed structural repairs or had defective plumbing or electrical wiring.

Only 13 per cent of non-Indigenous people who died lived in similar accommodations.

Numerous fatal fires in remote First Nations

The overall number of people living in homes that needed major repairs was 19.4 per cent and six per cent, respectively, during the same time period. 

"[The report] quantifies the details that we suspected all along," said Arnold Lazare, the deputy chief of operations for the Indigenous Fire Marshall's Service (IFMS), part of the National Indigenous Fire Safety Council. 

"And more importantly, what it does is it gives direction to the funding agencies to clearly identify what needs to occur to reduce the amount of death in Indigenous communities."

Remote first nations in northern Ontario have experienced numerous fatal fires over the past decade, including one this year in Peawanuk that killed two people. It happened almost a year to the day after a 10-year-old girl died in a separate fire in the same community.

Four people died in two separate fires in Pikangikum within a span of six months in 2023. The same community lost nine people, including three children, to a single house fire in 2016. And three people died in a fire in Sandy Lake in early 2022.

Indigenous people were most likely to die in fires caused by home heating, cooking or electrical devices, the report found.

Non-Indigenous people were most likely to die in fires caused by smoking.

Nearly 70 per cent of fire-related deaths involving Indigenous people occurred in rural communities, according to the report, and Lazare said many of those were likely fly-in communities in the north where there is less firefighting infrastructure and the temperatures are colder.

"If a house is not well-insulated, and it's cold, then the occupants are going to do whatever they have to to heat it," Lazare said.

But, he added, the risk of fire goes way down if houses are properly insulated and use safer heating elements.

Government needs to consult First Nations on fire prevention spending

"We need to educate communities and say, 'If you're going to take contractor A over contractor B, there's an education process to go through to make sure you get what you're paying for," he said.

Lazare's organization is responding to the report by readying the launch of a new campaign to get working smoke detectors into homes in First Nation communities, he said.

It also wants to support communities in developing fire prevention plans.

The federal government has committed $20.9 million over three years, starting in 2024-25, to distribute fire alarms and fire extinguishers to homes and community facilities on-reserve and offer fire-related education programs.

It was part of a package of funding announced in April for wildfire response and recovery.

But Lazare said the government needs to consult with organizations like his to make sure the money is well-spent.

"We believe that the IFMS, or actually the Indigenous community, should be able to make decisions, because right now, it's pretty much a top-down from the government, and other government programs have not been as successful," he said.

"A cookie-cutter approach will not resolve the problem."