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Fighting fire with knowledge

Getting out and calling for help foreign idea for some newcomers

By: Carol Sanders

Posted: 02/8/2012 3:17 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Fayza Peyawary (from left), Zebunesa Sadiq, Aliza Sadiq and Hamid Farooq.

The cause of the Winnipeg fire that claimed five members of Hamid Farooq's family is officially undetermined, but the question remains whether their deaths were preventable, says a man who works with newcomers to Canada.

"In many cultures, we try to help ourself," said Shoaib Ebadi, who attended the memorial service last week for the family from Pakistan.

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Hoorya Sadiq

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Joe Bryksa / Winnipeg Free Press Shoaib Ebadi, director of the New Immigrant Chai Centre, says newcomers from places without public fire services will often try to deal with a fire on their own.

Ebadi, who came from Afghanistan a decade ago, is the director of the New Immigrant Chai Centre.

"In many countries, when the fire breaks out in the house, the family will try to calm the fire and neighbours will come and all help to kill the fire. Here, it is a totally different system."

Officials said the Jan. 24 fire started in a couch, but what actually sparked the blaze cannot be determined. The fire killed Farooq's wife, Zebunesa Sadiq, their children Fayza Peyawary, Aliza Sadiq and Hoorya Sadiq, and his mother, Shemeen Akhtar.

Ebadi wondered Tuesday if the women in the home knew what to do when they discovered the fire.

Initial reports said it appeared the women were trying to get out with the kids, but succumbed to smoke inhalation.

"I was thinking that the moment the couch caught fire, if these people knew not to calm the fire but to escape the house, their lives could've been spared," Ebadi said from the downtown centre that helps newcomers integrate and make friends.

Recently, the centre had a fire-safety presentation. But Ebadi worries a similar tragedy could happen again if people don't escape their homes first and then call for help, as the training suggests.

Not all cultures teach people to do that, said Marc Proulx, the city's fire education co-ordinator.

"They have to learn the service is out there," Proulx said.

He's taught immigrants from countries where there is private, for-profit fire service, he said.

"Their idea is, 'Don't call the fire department -- we're going to get charged for it,' " Proulx said.

His department teaches fire-safety programs to newcomers at English as an additional language classes and the Entry Program orientation session for new arrivals.

"They're already overwhelmed, so you start with the basics," said Proulx, such as smoke alarms and not tampering with them.

Gaining the trust of people from countries where authorities in uniform are feared is another challenge, Proulx said.

"When you walk in wearing a uniform, you need to let them know the firefighter is not there to give you heck."

His office gets referrals from the Residential Tenancies Branch for newcomers who need fire-safety instruction, he said. Requests for an instructor can be made by calling 311.

It's the people who can't get to the fire-prevention programs Proulx worries about.

Men from male-dominated societies might not want their wives learning and becoming empowered, Ebadi said.

"They do not want their wife to go to programs or be educated."

Knowledge is power and there is sometimes a fear the balance of power in the home will shift, said Ebadi, who is trying to help men and women adapt to more balanced gender roles here.

Proulx sees how gender roles can be a fire hazard, as well.

When men come to Canada on their own and have to cook for themselves for the first time, it can be dangerous, said Proulx, a firefighter for 15 years.

"They have to learn you can't turn on the element and walk away."

Ebadi said city and government agencies do a "wonderful job" with newcomers but the learning that comes from integrating into the community is vital.

"Simply talking English with them... is helping them, maybe to find a job," or to call for help, he said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 8, 2012 A3

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