Two children died and it could have been prevented. That’s the cold, hard truth. No matter who blames whom, no matter what excuses are tossed about, there’s still that one inescapable fact.
On Feb. 17 of this year at the Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation reserve, two children, ages two and one, were pulled out of a burning house and died at the scene. The neighbouring Loon Lake fire department, which would normally respond to that location’s fire, refused because of the band’s previous unpaid $3,400 fire bill. When asked by the CBC what went through his mind when he got the call, volunteer fire chief Larry Heon said, “Protocol. I just thought about it and we do not respond to fires at Makwa Sahgaiehcan right at this present time.” According to that same CBC interview, Heon then got emotional when asked about the criticism his fire department is receiving: “I spent 23 years in the military to protect people in this country,” he said. “And now to have this thrown back at me that we just let people die in my own country is very saddening.”
Then why didn’t you respond? No matter the reasons why you shouldn’t or who told you not to, who wouldn’t go running to save the lives of people – of children – in a burning building? If a fireman was standing in front of a burning building and heard the screams of children crying for help, would he not go to help? Would he stop and think about whether those children’s mayor had paid his fire bills? Because that’s essentially what happened. Those children paid for the miscommunication and debt between their band chief and Loon Lake administration. Perhaps it is presumptuous of me to say it, but it seems that for Heon, out of sight was out of mind.
The bigger issue here isn’t just what’s getting trumpeted in the media about insufficient fire prevention funding (although those are also equally important issues). There’s a larger philosophical question that very few people seem to be asking: when other people’s lives depend on you, do you have the right to refuse?
The answer is unequivocally NO. Those children had nobody to defend them. Their grandmother barely managed to make it out alive herself. They weren’t responsible for either the miscommunication or the debt that is currently being volleyed back and forth between their band chief and Loon Lake. They were simply the victims and the Loon Lake fire department were the ones that stood by and did nothing.
In this situation, everyone is to blame, including the band chief. He says he thought he was all paid up with Loon Lake administration; they said they sent him letters that said otherwise. As to who’s telling the truth, we might never know, but it doesn’t really matter. Those two children are still dead.
I can sort of understand Loon Lake’s side. When a person or a community is expected to pay for a service, that service is cut off if the payment isn’t delivered. Why continue offering it to someone (or a community) if they refuse to pay? There would be no point in billing them if you’re just going to continue providing your service for free either way. It would be like refusing to pay your water bill and yet getting it anyway because it’s an essential service.
I get it, I do. But am I to understand that there was no way they could reach a compromise? There was no way to find a solution except to let a house burn down with two children in it? In health care, doctors are required to save a person’s life first and then talk about payment after. Why isn’t it the same for something as essential as firefighting? How does one staunchly refuse to respond to a fire when one has the capacity to help? Could they not have at least saved the children and then let the house burn down?
Here’s the final fact: there is absolutely no excuse good enough to justify that fire department standing by and doing nothing while two children burned to death. Accusations, excuses, regret, it all means nothing at the end of the day. It should be a law that if you have the ability and the responsibility to save lives, you should do everything in your power to do it. No excuses.
