Fires produce big costs for Nunavut: 2016 fire marshal report

Last September’s fire at the co-op warehouse in Kugluktuk, caused extensive damage an big losses. (FILE PHOTO)

An Oct. 30, 2016 fire in Rankin Inlet destroyed a row of four rental units caused more than $1 million in losses, displacing at least six people who lost nearly everything they owned. (FILE PHOTO)

More than 100 fires in Nunavut—18 of which were “suspicious” in origin—ran up a bill of about $2.9 million in losses across the territory in 2016.

That figure comes from the Office of the Fire Marshal’s 2016 Annual Report, tabled Sept. 18 in the Nunavut Legislature, on fire-related statistics for Nunavut.

While no one in Nunavut died in fires during 2016, unlike 2015 when five people died, 15 people did suffer injuries from fires in 2016.

The 2016 fire marshal’s report starts off with other comparatively good news— that firefighters in Nunavut dealt with 115 fires in 2016, less than 2015’s total of 141 and the past five-year average of 149.

But, no matter how many, the majority of fires were started by careless or intentional use of matches or lighters and appear to be avoidable.

These fires took place mainly in June, August and September, the marshal’s report reveals.

Also in the 2016 report:

• the Baffin region led Nunavut with respect to fires, with 88 out of the 115 fires reported territory-wide, with Igloolik, which saw four fires, including an accidental house fire, bearing the highest losses in the Qikiqtani, of $432,500;

• in the Kivalliq region there were 18 fires, with five of these, including a four-plex blaze, in Rankin Inlet, which also racked up the highest losses of the any single community in Nunavut due to fire, $1.625 million; and,

• 13 fires occurred in the Kitikmeot region, but two fires alone in Kugluktuk led to losses of $303,000, amounting to nearly all the losses for western Nunavut. Those losses resulted from a fire that destroyed the co-op warehouse in this western Nunavut town last September.

As well, the 2016 fire marshal’s report shows that incendiary fires were once again the number one reported cause of fires in Nunavut, accounting for 65 fires that caused $2.5 million in losses.

Other causes of fires included human failing (such as drug or alcohol use), which produced 46 fires and losses of $182,068.

The amount of fire losses in 2016 tallied $2.93 million overall, less than the $44.56 million in losses for 2015.

In 2016, no school burned down—but the amount of fire-incurred losses will rise in 2017.

Pangnirtung has recently experienced a rash of suspicious fires—eight by the last count.

And last week in Arctic Bay, a former weather station burned in a fire which the RCMP are also investigating.

The loss of Kugaaruk’s Kugaardjuq School this past February has already cost the Government of Nunavut more than $6 million to deal with over the short term.

The cost of fires affecting government buildings or housing may continue to cost the GN a lot of money.

That because due to recent fires that devastated schools in Kugaaruk and, earlier, in Cape Dorset, GN officials have found it’s getting harder to buy fire insurance.

If the trend continues, the GN could one day become uninsurable, Finance Minister Keith Peterson warned Sept. 14 at a committee of the whole discussion in the legislature.