2-year-old dies in Manitoba fire

A two-year-old boy died in a house fire on a Manitoba reserve late Saturday night after efforts by his parents to rescue him failed.

At about 10:15 p.m. CT, RCMP officers patrolling in the area of Long Plain First Nation, near Portage la Prairie in south-central Manitoba,spotted flames coming from a home in the small community, Sgt. Line Karpish said.

'His birthday's on Tuesday and I just have to look at him lie in a coffin on his birthday.' Cheryl Laporte, mother

Officers arrived at the home to find a fatherand two of hisyoung children, aged four and five,standingoutside. He told them another child was still in the home, Karpish said.

Firefighters managed to pull thechildout ofthe house, but attempts to revive him at the scene were unsuccessful. Police didn't identify him, but the boy's mother, Cheryl Laporte, told CBC News his name was Curtis Laporte. He wastwo daysfrom his third birthday, Laporte said.

"His birthday's on Tuesdayand I just have to look at him lie in a coffin on his birthday," she said.

'He's gone'

The devastated mother said she was told the boy was terrified by the flames and took shelter behind a couch in the home.

When he was brought out by firefighters through a window, he was crying, but soon lost consciousness and never recovered.

"We heard him crying and I just dropped everything and I went running," she said. "They lied him on the ground [and] he just stopped.

"The RCMP told me not to look at him because he's gone," Laporte said.

Laporte said she had just left the home to run an errand for a few minutes. By the time she came back, the home was engulfed in flames.

She saidshe asked where Curtis was and tried herself to enter the home but was turned back by the flames.

All she remembers hearing,Laporte said, was the crackling of the flames.

Laporte identifiedthechildren's father as Frank Maytwayashing.

Father braved flames

Maytwayashing was taken to hospital in Winnipeg for undisclosed injuries and was being treated in an intensive care ward, according to health officials.

Police said Maytwayashing braved the blaze and went back into the burning house to try to findCurtisprior to police arriving, but was unsuccessful.

The otherkids were not seriouslyinjured and have been released from hospital.

"The surviving children will be fine," Karpish said.

Fire officials in the community said they believed the fire was caused by one of the kids playing with a cigarette lighter, butRCMP have notconfirmed this.

The investigation was continuing.