Lack of firefighter training and inadequate equipment and communications systems are among the factors that contributed to a pair of deadly northern Manitoba house fires in 2011, an inquest has found.
Errabella Harper, a two-and-a-half-month-old baby, died Jan. 16, 2011 when a house in St. Theresa Point in which she and five other children were sleeping caught fire. People who saw the fire and came to help were unable to gain access to the bedroom she was in because there were blankets covering the window.
Demus James, 73, Kayleigh Okemow, 3, and Throne Kirkness, 2, died in a fire in God’s Lake First Nation on March 14, 2011.
People who arrived on scene had to kick in the front door of that house because it was locked or blocked from the inside, and they had trouble gaining access through the windows because they were covered with plastic.
