Two young children and a community elder in the Manitoba community of God's Lake Narrows died in a house fire Monday morning, according to the head of an agency representing chiefs in the province's north.

David Harper of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak told CBC News of the deaths in the late afternoon.

He said a boy and girl between the ages of two and five each died. He didn't have the age of the older man, but said he was the relative of a band official. The children who died were also his grandchildren.

RCMP said earlier they were attempting to figure out if anyone died.

Police said just before 11 a.m. they were called to a home in the community only to find it completely engulfed in flames.

"Only a portion of the home remains standing," Const. Miles Hiebert said in a statement to media outlets.

Community members tried, but failed to put the fire out themselves, police said.

Police said they're currently unsure if anyone was in the home when the fire broke out, and are working to account for the people who live there.

Investigators from the fire commissioner's office were called to the scene and try and determine the cause of the fire, police said.

God's Lake Narrows First Nation is located 850 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg and just south of Thompson.