Nunavik needs to install fire detectors: mayor

Kativik Regional Government regional councillor Paul Parsons of Kuujjuaq, shown here at this past week’s KRG meeting in Kuujjuaq, wants to see more fire detection devices in Nunavik homes. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

KUUJJUAQ – Kuujjuaq mayor and regional councillor Paul Parsons says a recent fire that left a young woman dead could have been avoided.

Earlier this year, Kuujjuaq’s police and firefighters responded to a fire at one of the community’s apartment buildings.

Once the fire was brought under control, emergency responders discovered the body of a 24-year-old woman, who died of smoke inhalation.

The cause of Jan. 19 fire was found to be accidental, but when Parsons looked at the building afterwards, he discovered that following a recent renovation, the building’s fire detection system had not been re-installed.

“This could have been prevented by a simple device — a fire alarm,” Parsons said March 2 at a meeting of KRG regional councillors. “That just leaves these people at risk.”

Many other homes in Kuujjuaq, and across the region, don’t have fire alarms installed, he added.

The obligation to install and maintain alarms rests with the homeowner, which, in 92 per cent of Nunavik’s homes, is the Kativik Municipal Housing Bureau.

“Inspection of the houses [alarms] was assumed to be a part of the KMHB’s responsibility, but as we develop the fire plan, it will be clarified,” Craig Lingard, the KRG’s civil security coordinator, told the regional councillors.

The fire department offers alarm maintenance as a voluntary public service, Lingard added.

The KMHB has made it a policy to install the devices in its homes, said Michael Cameron, a member of the KRG’s executive who also sits on the board of the KMHB.

But he said it is difficult to follow up because residents often remove alarms after they’re falsely set off — such as by smoke created when cooking.

“Removing that device can mean a loss of life,” Cameron said.

The KMHB plans to replace all our fire detectors in the near future, he said, while they’re also looking into carbon monoxide detection models to install as well.

A recent carbon monoxide leak at Arsaniq school in Kangiqsujuaq raised fears that the region is poorly equipped to deal with dangerous gas leaks.

Lingard admitted that Nunavik’s new fire safety cover plan does not include plans to train or equip firefighters to detect and respond to carbon monoxide leaks, although he said it’s something his department intends to develop.