{"id":101226,"date":"2026-01-19T08:54:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=101226"},"modified":"2026-01-19T08:54:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:54:36","slug":"blueberry-river-first-nation-school-fire-caused-tremendous-loss-to-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/19\/blueberry-river-first-nation-school-fire-caused-tremendous-loss-to-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Blueberry River First Nation school fire caused ‘tremendous loss’ to community"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Wolfgang Depner Leaders of the Blueberry River First Nation in northeastern B.C. say the community has suffered a “tremendous loss” after a Saturday morning fire destroyed a local school, but they are also planning to rebuild it as soon as possible. A statement from the First Nation’s council says that the multi-use Blueberry Community School has hosted everything from community gatherings and funerals to adult education and cultural events for more than 30 years. It says that the building could not be saved, because of a lack of water, adding that the First Nation has no agreement with the City of Fort St. John for firefighting due to the distance. The statement says that council is thankful nobody was hurt during the fire, but won’t speculate about its cause… <\/p>\n

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By Wolfgang Depner Leaders of the Blueberry River First Nation in northeastern B.C. say the community has suffered a “tremendous loss” after a Saturday morning fire destroyed a local school, but they are also planning to rebuild it as soon as possible. A statement from the First Nation’s council says that the multi-use Blueberry Community School has hosted everything from community gatherings and funerals to adult education and cultural events for more than 30 years. It says that the building could not be saved, because of a lack of water, adding that the First Nation has no agreement with the City of Fort St. John for firefighting due to the distance. The statement says that council is thankful nobody was hurt during the fire, but won’t speculate about its cause... <\/p>\n

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Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"\nBlueberry River First Nation school fire caused 'tremendous loss' to community - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/19\/blueberry-river-first-nation-school-fire-caused-tremendous-loss-to-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blueberry River First Nation school fire caused 'tremendous loss' to community - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Wolfgang Depner Leaders of the Blueberry River First Nation in northeastern B.C. say the community has suffered a “tremendous loss” after a Saturday morning fire destroyed a local school, but they are also planning to rebuild it as soon as possible. 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The statement says that council is thankful nobody was hurt during the fire, but won’t speculate about its cause\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/19\/blueberry-river-first-nation-school-fire-caused-tremendous-loss-to-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-19T13:54:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/19\\\/blueberry-river-first-nation-school-fire-caused-tremendous-loss-to-community\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/19\\\/blueberry-river-first-nation-school-fire-caused-tremendous-loss-to-community\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Blueberry River First Nation school fire caused ‘tremendous loss’ to community\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-19T13:54:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/19\\\/blueberry-river-first-nation-school-fire-caused-tremendous-loss-to-community\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":213,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/19\\\/blueberry-river-first-nation-school-fire-caused-tremendous-loss-to-community\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/19\\\/blueberry-river-first-nation-school-fire-caused-tremendous-loss-to-community\\\/\",\"name\":\"Blueberry River First Nation school fire caused 'tremendous loss' to community - 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