Fire claims Big Grassy Clinic

Ken Johnston
Editor

Last Monday Big Grassy First Nation was devastated by a fire that took one of its most essential service buildings.
The community's medical clinic, a modular building, caught fire and burned to the ground. Community Health Nurse Jeff Fraser said that officials felt the fire started in the crawl space. Fortunately everyone escaped the blaze.
Unfortunately a wealth of medical information did not.
Scads of medical records were lost in the blaze, unprotected from fire or water. Fraser said that the community learned from this lesson and that anew facility will likely include a sprinkler system and filing cabinets that are water proof.
He noted that Health Canada has been contacted regarding the tragedy and he is optimistic that a new facility will be funded and constructed in the near future. In the mean time he is operating out of the medical room at the elementary school.