RCMP didn't check site of fatal house fire until relatives found remains: Pinaymootang resident

A Pinaymootang First Nation resident says RCMP dismissed his family's concerns and didn't check for the body of an unaccounted loved one after that person's home was gutted in a fire.

Emergency crews were called on Feb. 7 to the community, just off Highway 6 about 200 kilometres north of Winnipeg. 

The residence was destroyed by the fire, which RCMP have since deemed suspicious.

But Clifford Anderson said police didn't bother to check the site after the flames were put out, even after his family said someone might have been inside when the fire started. 

Anderson said a young adult man, the foster son to his sister-in-law, was living in the home at the time.

On the night of the fire, relatives tried to call the man's cell phone without any success in reaching him. So Anderson's family told an RCMP officer standing outside the home they believed the man was possibly still inside.

Anderson said the officer brushed off the concerns, saying police had already looked around the home and nobody was found.

"This was while the house was fully engulfed. From where we were, we were standing there about 50 yards away, the heat was almost unbearable from the house. And here the RCMP member said that he looked around," Anderson said. 

"How could you … when that house was still burning?"

'Bones sticking out of the ashes'

Anderson said the officer stayed at the site until 11 p.m. The house was still burning in some sections while firefighters continued battling the blaze.

The following two days — Saturday and Sunday — Anderson drove by the home but there wasn't any police presence either day, he said. 

"Nobody [was] guarding the scene. Nobody [was] guarding the driveway," he said. 

He and his brother decided to look through the rubble themselves. Anderson went along the east side of the home while his brother searched the west. 

"Right where we met … I noticed the bones sticking out of the ashes," he said.

They called RCMP, who came to the scene and photographed the bones. The officer later told them those were, in fact, human remains, he said. 

"If it wasn't for us going there, I don't know what would have happened," Anderson said. "Maybe those bones would have been lost forever."

In an email to CBC News, RCMP Sgt. Paul Manaigre said searches of those types of scenes are not done by the Mounties but rather by local fire departments and the Office of the Fire Commissioner.

"Due to the intensity of the fire, a proper search could not be completed until it was deemed safe," he said.

That occurred on Saturday, when the fire department conducted a preliminary search while also extinguishing hot spots. However, they did not locate any human remains, Manaigre wrote.

He confirmed that on Sunday "local officials … entered onto the debris and located the partial remains" but that it was the chief who found the bones, not family members.

As for Anderson's claim that officers disregarded concerns that someone might still be inside the home, Manaigre said officers did work to determine if the person was home or away when the fire broke out.

"Due to the officers not being able to enter the site for some time, efforts were placed on determining if the individual was within the community," he said.

SCO, chief call for better policing

The Southern Chiefs' Organization, which represents 32 Manitoba First Nations, including Pinaymootang, is calling for better policing and public safety in the community.

A week before fatal fire, a 50-year-old woman died after being found in medical distress outside a home.

Autopsy results indicate April Woodhouse, who was discovered to be covered in bruises, didn't die from exposure to the cold or from injuries.

Her family has been pushing for her death to be investigated as a homicide.

"SCO is deeply concerned about the frequency of these horrific incidents and the perceived lack of investigation by the RCMP,"  the organization said in a statement released on Saturday.

The organization also demanded an increase in police and safety patrol options for the community. They are also asking the province to train more First Nation safety officers, who work in tandem with local policing authorities.

"My sincere hope is that the deaths of our relations in Pinaymootang will not be in vain and that we devote our energy to doing all that we can to ensure these kinds of incidents never happen again," SCO Grand Chief Jerry Daniels said in the statement. 

CBC News reached out to Pinaymootang Chief Kurvis Anderson for comment but he declined, given the RCMP's investigations into both deaths are still ongoing. 

However, in the statement from SCO, Kurvis Anderson called on all levels of government to work with the community to find solutions for "this incredibly difficult time." 

"There is an obvious need to explore all avenues of increased policing and the overall safety for my people," he said.