A view of Saturday's fire. (Image Credit: Submitted/ Anissha Merasty)

By Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff

Fire investigation

Sandy Bay residents sound the alarm after weekend fire destroys family’s home

Apr 6, 2026 | 4:32 PM

For the second time in three weeks, a fire has destroyed a family’s home in the northern village of Sandy Bay and with no working fire truck, local residents were forced to stand by and watch the structure burn to the ground.

The most recent fire occurred Saturday night, and according to Anissha Merasty, whose mother and two nieces lived in the house, they lost all the brand new furniture they just bought. Fortunately they were not hurt as they were all in Prince Albert and Merasty said all the appliances had been turned off.

“The only thing that was on in my mom’s house was the stove light,” she said.

An online fundraiser has been launched, Merasty stated her mother lived there for 32 years.

“It was everyone’s safe place to go,” she said, adding her mother loved to invite other family and community members over to visit.

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Sandy Bay residents sound the alarm after weekend fire destroys family's home

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Saturday’s fire is the latest in a series of structures fires in the community, and has reignited calls for village council to buy a fire truck.

Less than two weeks ago, a trailer home was also destroyed and last October, a woman and her eight children to flee to safety when their home burned to the ground. That same month, a teenage boy was arrested and charged for setting an abandoned house on fire.

Village Councillor Tim Underwood posted a message on his social media page.

“It’s very unfortunate that over the past few years our community has endured so many personal losses due to house fires caused by selfish individuals who do not value our community and who seem to enjoy causing pain and hardship to others,” he said.

 “These individuals have absolutely no respect or empathy for our community members and we really need to work together to report all criminal activities to the authorities to hold them accountable.”

(Image Credit: Submitted photo.)

Acknowledging there was no local fire crew or equipment on site to help save the home, Underwood stated the current fire hall has been a huge safety concern due to its aging infrastructure, financial issues, mechanical breakdowns, vandalism of equipment and shortage of first responders.

“It was for these very reasons during my first term I filed a major capital application with Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) to help build a new fire hall on-reserve and I’m happy to report after five years ISC finally approved funding for a feasibility study to help develop a budget, architectural design, site location, an environmental assessment and Geotech report.”

Underwood added since then they’ve had a few additional project meetings to discuss and complete the study and have now submitted a final report to ISC to fully fund the project.

“So I’m hoping that in the coming months we will have an update to report whether it’s been approved or not, but in the meantime I think it’s important we get the community to help support the need of the project by petitioning the federal government of the importance of a new firehall to address these challenges and safety issues we are currently facing.”

paNOW reached out to Underwood for further comment, as well as Mayor Pauline Morin and Councillor Michelle Ballentyne.

Ballentyne advised paNOW council has decided not to comment until they have more information to share.

nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @nigelmaxwell