Are adult fire-starters a new trend in Iqaluit?

Here’s what’s left of the 300 block of Creekside Village townhouses which burned Feb. 26. When firefighters arrived on the scene, flames were already pouring out of unit 307 where the fire started. Two people died. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

This is how the 2231-D unit that burned March 16 looked a few hours after firefighters managed to successfully contain the blaze that started in one of the unit’s rooms. (PHOTO BY JIM BELL)

If only every fire were as textbook perfect as the fire that Iqaluit firefighters quenched successfully in the early hours of March 16: no one was hurt and the fire was contained, with minimal property loss.

The cause of March 16 fire in the fourplex social housing unit, home to about 15 people, appears to be accidental, that is, with no “malicious intent.”

That means it likely results from human error or oversight, said Lt. Chris Wilson of the Iqaluit fire department.

That’s unlike some of the larger, more challenging fires Wilson has seen in Iqaluit recently, which have caused four deaths over the past five years and huge property losses.

“The carnage is unusual,” Wilson said.

Over the 12 months he’s seen an apartment block blaze that left 60 people homeless, a fire that destroyed an old school in Apex, a tank fire farm last July, and, most recently, the disastrous Feb. 26 fire.

Wilson’s concern about these fires is that kids are generally considered to be responsible for setting fires.

But in Iqaluit, major fires like these aren’t linked to kids playing with matches — they appear to be more “adult-oriented,” Wilson said, and would be difficult to tackle with educational programs like the traditional “don’t-play-with-matches” messages of fire prevention programs.

“That’s very disturbing,” said Wilson, who has been a firefighter in Iqaluit for more than 15 years.

The 2010 fire marshal’s report found the most common cause of fires was “misuse of source of ignition,” which caused more than half of the 123 fires throughout the territory.

Most of those fires took place in housing units where youth, playing with matches and lighting fires, were responsible “in large part” for many fires, that report said.

No 2011 statistics from the Nunavut fire marshal’s office have yet been released to show just how bad the situation is in Iqaluit, where the fire department responds to 2,000 calls about fires and emergencies a year, or whether there’s new information about how fires are set in the city.

The 2011 fire marshall’s report was not released at the recent session of the legislature, although the 2010 fire marshall’s report was tabled during the March session.

That report also promised a new Nunavut Fire Protection Strategy was to be developed, with a focus on fire prevention and public education, noting that “the loss of community infrastructure, dollar significance and most of all fatalities are substantial enough for Nunavummiut to strive towards elimination of all types of fires.”

Unlike the Creekside Village fire, the March 16 fire at 2213-D was the kind of fire Wilson said he would “expect to see.”

And fighting that night’s fire was totally different than on Feb. 26, when firefighters arrived at the Creekside Village unit 307 to find flames already pouring out of every window of the dwelling.

The 2213-D fire had progressed, but the fire was still contained, Wilson said.

Alerted at about midnight about a blaze at 2213-D, 10 firefighters and two fire trucks set off to the unit facing the Apex road, just below Joamie elementary school.

RCMP were already on scene when the firefighters arrived and had evacuated the unit involved and the others in the four-plex.

Two people ended up at the Qikiqtani General Hospital where they were treated for smoke inhalation, but no other injuries resulted from the fire.

Meanwhile, firefighters discovered the fire, which appeared to have started in a front bedroom, had breached the room’s walls and had started to move through the unit.

When they tried to enter through the door, they were met by a wall of fire.

So, they reacted “very aggressively” to control the fire, Wilson said.

By breaking windows, and allowing smoke and gas to escape, the firefighters managed to enter and get the fire under control quickly.

That’s the way a “normal” fire generally goes, he said.

The cause of the Feb. 26 fire is still under investigation.