A remote First Nations community in northern Manitoba has declared a state of emergency and called in the Red Cross following a devastating fire.
Advertisement
Police and fire crews arrived on scene just after 4 p.m. and extinguished the blaze.
The community of 1,500 was left without supplies or emergency services when the blaze erupted Thursday afternoon, gutting the Northern store as well as the adjacent band office, radio station and 9-1-1 centre.
The damage to the building was extensive.
The other five youth that police say were involved are under the age of 12, so they can not be charged with a criminal offence under the terms of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, RCMP said. He was released on a promise to appear.
The Red Cross is now working to bring in food and emergency supplies to the community of 1,500 people using charter and commercial airplanes.
Shamattawa Chief Jeffrey Napaokeisk said the band office staff were several kilometers away attending a funeral when the fire started.
The Red Cross said in a media advisory September 23 that it was working on behalf of the federal government and with Northern Store parent company the North West Company to co-ordinate flights to transport diapers, baby formula and bottled water to Shamattawa and that it did not need direct donations at this time.
The fly-in community is located about 750 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. “Our band office completely burned down, the walls collapsed”. There will be an immediate need for things like water and baby formula.
Because the community is only accessible by air, with the exception of a winter road some 190 kilometres long that is only open for a few months, rebuilding could be expensive and time-consuming, she said.
Advertisement
“And even with that (winter road), building material won’t get up there until mid-February, and building can’t start until the ground has thawed out a bit”, North Wilson said.
