Monday, July 26, 2010

Tragic fire claims 3 in Nunatsiavut Region

















A fire in Nain on Saturday evening was too intense for firefighters to enter the house immediately


A small town in northern Labrador is reeling after its second fatal incident this month, with three people killed in a weekend house fire.

A Nain man, 50, and two small children — ages two and four — were killed when a fast-moving fire devoured a house in the close-knit Inuit community.

The tragedy came close on the heels of a July 9 drowning that claimed the life of a nine-year-old boy.

"It's quite tragic. Everybody's affected by this," said RCMP Const. Steve Conohan. He said volunteer firefighters felt helpless because the heat in Saturday's house fire was so intense they could not immediately enter it.

A woman escaped from the fire and called for help around 7:45 p.m.

"Nain being a small coastal community, any time fire happens in a small community like that, the entire community is impacted. To have the loss of three people from the same family is especially tragic, especially since there are two young persons involved."

The fire leapt to a nearby house and destroyed it also. No one was in the second house at the time.

Emergency crews spent Sunday putting out hotspots in the rubble. RCMP forensics investigators were en route to Nain to examine the scene.

Conohan said the volunteer firefighters were deeply affected by Saturday night's fire.

"As a volunteer firefighter, you come to a fire scene, your first inclination is to try and help whoever may be trapped," he said.

"It must definitely affect you if you can't get in there."



Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2010/07/26/nain-fire-deaths-tragedy-726.html#ixzz0unKq3SLg

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