Two fires that destroyed the Inuvik Warming Centre are not suspicious in nature, and one firefighter was medevaced to Stanton hospital in Yellowknife after slipping on the ice during the Nov. 27 blaze.
Town of Inuvik officials posted an update on their Facebook page at roughly 7 p.m. Nov. 28 on behalf of Chief Cynthia Hammond and the Inuvik Fire Department.
A total of 20 Firefighters first responded to a structure fire Nov. 26 at 7:08 p.m. with six vehicles. The building had been evacuated by the time the department arrived. A fire had broken out in the bathroom and had been hit with a fire extinguisher. The fire department attacked the fire aggressively and held the fire to where it started. The fire was put out over four hours and the cause of the fire was determined to be an electrical issue.
From the damage caused by the first fire and the fact utilities were disconnected from the building, it was determined the building would not be in use the following night.
That night, 25 firefighters were called to the building at 5:46 p.m. with six vehicles. With the building evacuated and the interior highly unsafe, the strategy moved to a defensive attack from above and the sides.
Firefighters couldn’t get into the building due to how it was constructed, how close to powerlines it was and the ice building up from the water used to suppress the fire. An excavator was used to access smaller isolated fires that continued to burn several hours after the initial blaze was put out. A gaping hole has burned through the building and the fire department deployed its ladder truck to attack the fire from above. Much of the interior was also burned and the exterior is covered in ice.
In total, battling the fire took 22 hours of continued attention. Inuvik Fire Chief Cynthia Hammond thanked the RCMP, AMS, Inuvik Gas, NTPC and Northwind for their assistance. She also thanked a generous anonymous donor.
“Inuvik Firefighters thank the generous donations of food and beverages that assisted to sustain their on-scene efforts for over 22 hours,” she wrote. “No further information will be provided at this time.”
No people were inside the building when the fire broke out and no injuries have been reported. The shelter had been unoccupied since a fire-related incident the previous night.
Housing Minister Paulie Chinna has announced the Inuvik Homeless Shelter will provide places for those displaced by the fire until suitable housing can be found, and the old Inuvik Warming Shelter building on Berger St. will be put back into operation in the interim. Anyone needing the Warming Centre’s services is asked to go to 5 Berger St. until further notice.
Power and internet outages were reported as a result of the fire. Mike Zubko Airport and the west side of Inuvik were without power for up to an hour. NTPC later announced the power outages were part of an emergency shut down to prevent further escalation of the situation.
