Tewatohnihi’sakta: Hiring ‘Fire-Watchers’

Much of the second and third floors of the Tewatohnihi’sakta building will likely remain closed for the next 11 weeks following an early morning fire this past Wednesday. Marissa LeBlanc is the Office and facilities Manager at Tewatohnihi’sakta:

“Our fire pumps, the motor on it blew that’s located in our electrical room downstairs on the 1st floor. Because the motor blew, it caused an electrical surge going towards other electrical components of our building including our H-Vac system our blowers into the server room and stuff like that, so there was some sparks flying here and there, but our maintenance guy Jordan Dupont who is also a certified fire fighter, thank-goodness, was able to put out the fire immediately as soon as it happened.”

Leblanc says all the businesses on the first floor will operate as usual. After a plan was approved by the Kahnawà:ke Fire Brigade, businesses on the second and third floors will be permitted to operate as they have during the pandemic, with essential employees in the office:

“We are hiring ‘fire-watch’ keepers, so basically, what we need is to have 2 people roaming the building during business hours at all times and then 1 person on ‘fire-watch’ roaming the building during non business hours. Basically their job will strictly to observe the building and walk throughout the building to make sure there’s no fire and if there is that they would contact the fire department immediately, and basically acting as our fire alarm.”