Chief asks OPP to investigate fatal reserve fire

The Ontario Provincial Police has been asked to investigate a fatal fire in Kashechewan.

Further information is included in the following news release from the OPP:

(Cochrane, Ontario)
Chief Paul Trivett, of the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service has requested that the Ontario Provincial Police conduct an investigation into the death of two detainees being held at Kashechewan detachment.

A fatal fire yesterday afternoon (Sunday January 8, 2006) took the lives of two Kashechewan First Nations residents and destroyed the detachment.

Three members of the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service were injured in attempts to rescue the inmates. One member was transported to the Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto and is in serious condition.

Investigators from the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal, OPP officers from the North East Region Crime and Identification Units along with members from the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service remain at the scene today and are continuing their investigation.

It is expected that the bodies of the two adult males will be removed later today from the scene and transported to the Chief Coroners Office in Toronto where a post mortem examination to determine cause of death and positive identification of the deceased will be conducted.

The investigation is continuing under the direction of Detective Inspector Mark Pritchard, Criminal Investigation Branch.

No other details are available at this time.