A telegram to the Indian Branch of the Department of Mines and Resources reports that the Thunderchild Residential School in Saskatchewan has burned down over the night of January 13-14, 1948. No children were hurt and the survivors believe that the children intentionally set the fire and ensured that all children would be safe, warning them beforehand about the fire and helping organize a safe evacuation. The night of the fire, the children quietly warned one another to sleep in their clothes and to be ready. As with most residential schools, one report found 15 per cent of the students at the school died in 1928, a rate of up to five times the provincial average for non-First Nations students. As Jenny Spyglass later recounted, "they should have burned it a long time ago. Maybe then my brother would be still alive." In January of 1901, Chief Thunderchild had written a letter to the Indian Department informing them that the vast majority of his community had voted against the construction of a Roman Catholic boarding school on their reserve.