A New Milestone in Fire Safety for Northern First Nations

Lac Seul First Nation, Ontario, September 23, 2024 – Last week, fourteen individuals serving five northern First Nations graduated from the Ontario Fire College Fire and Life Safety Educator course. The trainees represent Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, Lac Seul, Muskrat Dam, Pikangikum, and Whitesand First Nations as well as staff members of the Independent First Nations Alliance (IFNA). This training enables the graduates to be public educators on fire prevention, which will help make the five member communities of IFNA safer.

This specific training course provides the trainees with the skills to provide public education on fire safety in order to reduce instances of preventable fires and misuse (or lack of) smoke alarms, especially with children and youth. Each graduate of the course will become a trainer themselves in Fire and Life Safety, allowing them to teach their new skills to others.

“These graduates will go a long way in helping to prevent fires, injuries and fatalities in IFNA member communities.” said Nicholas Rhone, IFNA Integrated Emergency Services Director and Regional Fire Chief, “Our Regional Fire Rescue team in collaboration with each IFNA community has been working hard on fire prevention, beginning with a smoke alarm installation blitz where we were able to have a smoke alarm either installed or dropped off to 96% of homes in-community. The training completed this week was a milestone step in reducing the gaps our communities see in emergency services.”

This course is also the beginning of a training relationship with the Ontario Office of the Fire Marshal, which will allow IFNA member communities and staff to take advantage of more courses through the Ontario Fire Marshal, provide training to others, as well as begin to develop these courses in Indigenous languages.

“My office has been seeing an increase in fatal fires across Ontario and the need for public education on fire prevention and smoke alarm safety has never been more necessary,” said Ontario Fire Marshal Jon Pegg. “I commend IFNA Regional Fire Rescue for taking this important first step to continue enhancing fire safety across their communities. I’m pleased to know that the five IFNA represented communities are now safer with the addition of these 14 public fire safety educators and that the Ontario Fire College was able to support this pivotal training for them.”

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For more information (media only), please contact:

Gabrielle Tuomisto
Communications Manager
Independent First Nations Alliance (IFNA)
(807) 620-6005
comms@ifna.ca