As people in Puirnituq, who.
The fire, which began on Saturday around 3 pm, destroyed two housing units in the town of 2,100 people.
Injuries were not reported, but the inability of firefighters to deal with the fire quickly due to a limited water supply is what led to a state of emergency, according to Radio-Canada.
Access to water has been limited since a pipe that connects the pump station to the treatment plant was frozen in mid -March.
In recent days, patients have had to fly to the south due to the limited supply of water in hospitals and there have been growing concerns about diseases such as gastroenteritis (stomach flu) that spread rapidly because many people cannot wash their hands.
CBC News is reaching local authorities to have a better idea of what a statement of an emergency implies.
“I feel for our community,” wrote the mayor of Podirnituq, Lucy Qalingo, on Facebook on Saturday night. “I don’t know what else to say.”
That day earlier, hours before the fire began, the mayor had also resorted to Facebook to say that “both governments should stop ignoring the high needs of everything in Nunavik” and issued an urgent call for help, writing: “Please do not fail us.”
“If we do not see changes from the result of the crisis that we are happening, we are definitely nothing for them. What we are happening at this time happens in Third World countries,” Qalingo wrote in the Facebook publication.
“We don’t have to beg for water. We are also Canadians. Forgotten Canadians.”
CBC News has also communicated with the office of Ian Lafrenière, Quebec Minister responsible for relations with the first nations and the Inuites, as well as the office of the new Minister of Indigenous Services of Canada, Mandy Gull-Masty.
Earlier this week, LaFrenière said he had been in contact with the regional government of Kativik and the Nunavik Regional Health and Social Services Board during the last three weeks and that his government was ready to provide assistance.
Two aircraft loaded with water left Montreal for Puirnituq on Friday morning. The Ministry of Public Security of the Province said that three more water deliveries were scheduled over the weekend, although the climatic conditions could affect these operations.
