At least 24 fatal fires and 34 drownings in Atlantic Canada in 2019: Red Cross

HALIFAX -- HALIFAX -- The Canadian Red Cross says 2019 was a particularly tragic year for house fires and drownings across Atlantic Canada.

The humanitarian organization says at least 24 people died in residential fires across the four provinces in 2019.

There were at least 12 fire-related deaths in Nova Scotia, eight in New Brunswick, and two each in Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.

The single largest tragedy involved the deaths of seven children from a family of immigrants from Syria in a house fire in Halifax in late February.

The Atlantic region also saw at least 34 water-related fatalities in 2019, including the loss of all seven men aboard a float plane that crashed into a lake while heading to a remote fishing lodge in northern Labrador last July.

Those were among at least 15 water-related deaths in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2019.

Nova Scotia reported 14 such deaths, with four in P.E.I. and one in New Brunswick.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan 2, 2020.

Editor's note: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the number of fire victims in New Brunswick was nine.