Auto shop burns on K'atlodeeche First Nation reserve
Owner upset that firefighters had to come from Hay River since reserve's crew not yet trained
The owner of an auto shop on N.W.T.'s K'atlodeeche First Nation reserve says he lost about $80,000 worth of tools in a fire Friday afternoon.
No one was injured.
The shop's owner, Ricky Sonfrere, is a member of the reserve's fire department. He says he asked the band to use its truck to fight the fire, but he was told that couldn't happen.
Sonfrere had to watch his shop burn while waiting for firefighters to arrive from nearby Hay River.
"It's our community," he said. "It could be anybody's house that's burning down. At least we could have contained it with another truck until the fire department from town showed up. But they couldn't even do that, so I'm kind of upset."
He has no insurance to cover the loss.
"I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm going to have to build a new shop or something."
Amos Cardinal, who handles municipal services for the reserve, says they are working at training firefighters.
"We're still in the midst of training people right now and nobody's really fully trained and qualified to be able to take on this kind of a fire with this shop here," he said.
"There's a lot of issues with liability nowadays with firefighting and we can't just make a call and put people's lives in jeopardy in terms of being unqualified or untrained. We need the proper training to engage in a fire like this."
The Hay River fire department says the shop's furnace likely started the fire.