Accidental house fire leaves mom injured, Nunavut family homeless

A house fire, thought to have been started by a child playing with a lighter, has left a mother with third-degree burns and a family without a home. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)

A house fire in Igloolik on Jan. 2 has sent one woman to an Ottawa hospital with third-degree burns and left her two sons without a home.

That’s according to Igloolik fire chief Justin Ogak, who told Nunatsiaq News Jan. 4 how volunteer firefighters and community members worked for more than five hours to extinguish the fire.

“Two boys were at home at the time, and a daughter went there and one of the boys was screaming,” Ogak said.

One of the boys sustained mild burn injuries and was treated at the local health centre, Ogak said.

The fire was started by one of the boys playing with a lighter, the fire chief said.

An Igloolik resident, Megan Gibbs-Rochon, has started an online fundraising campaign for the fire victims, named on the Gofundme website as Grace Ivvalu, a single mom of three.

“The family is left with nothing but the clothing on their back,” Gibbs-Rochon wrote on the Gofundme site.

The two boys are staying with an uncle, the website says.

As if that wasn’t enough, the fire, “had added more burden to an already grieving family who had lost three members due to health issues in the month of December,” Gibbs-Rochon wrote.

A fundraising event held Jan. 2 in Igloolik managed to raise $1,300 to help support the family but friends and family members are seeking $3,000 more online.

You can donate to the crowdsourcing site here. As of Jan. 4, seven people had donated a total of $300.