The recent death of a woman in a city-approved encampment is not a surprise to anyone who has worked with Sudbury’s homeless population, caught earlier headlines about fires and explosions among the tents, or even just observed the tarp-strewn shantytown from a distance.
But neither, argue many, is this loss of human life remotely acceptable.
“I’m really upset to hear about this,” said Laurie McGauley, a longtime anti-poverty activist in Sudbury. “But it’s inevitable. People are going to be trying to keep warm in their tents, in unsafe ways.”
The saddest part to her is that “this has now become normalized,” she said. “This death is not normal and I will never get to that point, but it’s like we are just considering this part of our lives now. It’s been a crisis situation for at least six years, and the fact the Energy Court is even seen as an option is depressing, because it absolutely is not a solution.”
Greater Sudbury Police said the woman, 38, was found deceased around 10 p.m. Tuesday after her tent caught on fire. Some individuals present were able to extinguish the blaze with snow, police said, but not in time to save the occupant.
The tragedy is “a reminder of the vulnerability faced by members of our community and the urgent need to ensure safety and dignity for all,” said Public Health Sudbury and Districts in a statement. “Living conditions and adverse experiences of people who are unhoused or at risk of homelessness amplify the dangers of cold-related injuries and deaths. We believe greater action is needed to improve living conditions and support persons at risk in order to prevent these tragedies from happening.”
Greater Sudbury Fire Chief Robert Grimwood said crews were called to the fire at 9:52 p.m. and arrived minutes later. By that time, “the fire had effectively burnt itself out and was only smouldering,” he said, while police had also arrived on scene.
“We assisted police in confirming it tragically was a fatality,” he said. “Police took ownership of the scene and the investigator with the Fire Marshal’s Office was contacted to assist them.”
The hazards posed by tent cities are not new, and neither are they unique to Sudbury, the chief noted.
“Across Ontario, fire services are experiencing challenges with a significant number of responses to unhoused people, whether it’s in encampments or other situations,” said Grimwood. “And it gets worse in the winter, with the need to stay warm.”
Homeless is going up like a rocket, and the amount who are being housed is no taller than the grass in my front yard
Holland Marshall
The recent death, he said, underscores the need for further outreach and education efforts, along with more municipal strategizing on how to prevent or at least mitigate incidents.
“We’re working really hard on this,” he said. “The city of Sudbury has put together a multidimensional working group of stakeholders from all different divisions and departments that interact with encampments — social services, paramedic services, police, bylaw — and we’re trying to find that balance between the need for people to stay sheltered and warm, and the public safety risks related to fire.”
While it’s natural for people to want to heat up their rudimentary shelters, there is essentially no safe way to do that, said the fire chief. Apart from the fire risk posed by heating devices, there is also a threat of carbon monoxide poisoning.
“One of the messages we very clearly promote is burning within a tent or using a heating appliance within a tent is not safe,” said Grimwood. “It’s been one of our messages to residents of encampments since we started responding, and we’re certainly ramping up efforts after last (Tuesday) night to make sure that messaging is out there.”
It’s not the first time a tent has caught fire in the Energy Court. In November, two people were hurt in a blaze caused by a propane heater. A little over a year ago, on Dec. 1, 2024, a woman was hospitalized after a propane tank exploded and several tents were destroyed at the site.
It’s also not the first fatality. Homeless advocate Holland Marshall said a man died two winters ago in a tent fire, although it wasn’t immediately reported. Kaitlyn Dunn, a spokesperson for Greater Sudbury Police, confirmed there was “one a year or two ago in New Sudbury involving an individual living in a tent in the bush.”
While the city has approved the Energy Court as an area for tents and envisioned it as a hub for people to access services, critics say the site leaves a lot to be desired.
“There’s a warming centre in what used to be the injection site, with coffee and snacks, if they have them, and two washrooms — for the 50 people that are in the centre and those who are outside and need to use them,” said Marshall. “So it’s very minimal. The sanctioned campground itself has nothing — it’s a swamp when it rains, like it did last week and in November, and a lot of people don’t want to be there, as it’s an extremely dangerous area.”
Marshall said he’s heard about smoke detectors being provided in at least one other city for folks living in tents. “Here in Sudbury, I think all they do is give them a pamphlet on how to camp safely,” he said.
Rather than expect people to tough it out in tents without any form of heat on subzero nights, Marshall believes the city needs to either create more shelter spaces or provide more warming centre options.
“The fastest and cheapest way would be to use buses,” he said. “It’s what they do in some communities, and you can park a bus where it’s really needed.”
Alternatively a library or community centre, which are heated already, could be kept open overnight, he said, and a van used to transport people to the site if it’s not within walking distance.
“You just need a couple security guards or attendants, so it doesn’t cost much,” he said. “Compared to what they spend money on, this is chicken feed.”
We would meet every week and we would spend our afternoons just crying — it was therapy, but it wasn’t good therapy, because we weren’t seeing any solutions coming forward
Laurie McGauley
The city has a mission to end homelessness by 2030 — defining ‘end’ as a point at which homelessness becomes “rare, brief and non-recurring” — but many feel that is unrealistic.
“Tents are going to be here for a decade, a couple of decades, easy, because there is no housing,” said Marshall. “I have a chart — I track the number of homeless and the number of people who are housed. Homeless is going up like a rocket, and the amount who are being housed is no taller than the grass in my front yard.”
McGauley agreed that affordable housing is desperately needed, but “we’re trapped in this capitalist system where housing is considered a commodity, not a right. So even with politicians who are committed to getting more housing, it’s a whole market. There are options, but we need the resources to put into it.”
Meanwhile social assistance rates have not come close to matching the actual costs of housing and food, she said, going back to the Mike Harris years in Ontario when benefits were deeply slashed.
“I’ve been doing anti-poverty work most of my adult life, and I remember when it was considered normal that housing costs should be one-quarter of people’s income,” she said. “That was also part of how the amounts for social assistance and disability were set, according to the real costs out there. And that’s completely gone out the window.”
McGauley said she admires the efforts made by groups like Go Give and Shkagamik-Kwe to help the homeless population but “our poor outreach workers are burning out all the time, because their job is impossible.”
The veteran activist was involved for several years with a now-inactive group called the Poverty and Housing Advocacy Coalition, which brought together many front-line workers as well as members of the homeless community.
“We were trying to push for change, but we eventually stopped, because nothing was changing,” she said. “We would meet every week and we would spend our afternoons just crying — it was therapy, but it wasn’t good therapy, because we weren’t seeing any solutions coming forward from the (Doug) Ford government or the city. I know the city wants to do something, but they just can’t seem to think beyond their own little box.”