First Nunavut students return to class after school fire

Kugaaruk mayor Stephan Inaksajak said a demolition crew is scheduled to come to the community in the coming weeks to clear out what remains of the school. “It was a total loss,” he said. (PHOTO BY C. PUJUARDJOK)

Kindergarten students in Kugaaruk were back to class March 6, less than a week after the Nunavut community’s only school was destroyed in a fire.

Firefighters responded to the fire late Feb. 28. It burned overnight and completely leveled the 30-year-old Kugaardjuq School, which housed 295 students from kindergarten to Grade 12—roughly one third of the hamlet’s entire population of 930.

Kugaaruk Mayor Stephan Inaksajak said kindergarten students will attend classes at the local daycare centre for the time being, while officials continue to secure other space for the remainder of Kugaardjuq School’s student population and 45 staff members.

“We’re taking this one step at a time,” Inaksajak told Nunatsiaq News. “It’ll take time to adjust, but at least it’s getting started.”

Government of Nunavut officials have been to the Kitikmeot community to help secure classroom space to host temporary classrooms. So far, the hamlet has identified space in its municipally-run gymnasium, church hall and wellness centre.

School staff also re-launched Kugaardjuq’s breakfast program March 6 out of the wellness centre, which provides a daily morning meal for students.

But it could take anywhere between two to four weeks to get all of Kugaardjuq’s students back to class, Inaksajak said, while school administrators order the classroom materials required to get older grades back to class.

“They’ve started to organize which materials they need to have shipped up,” Inaksajak said.

In Nunavut’s Legislative Assembly March 6, Netsilik MLA Emiliano Qirngnuq thanked territorial organizations and government agencies for their quick response and support in Kugaaruk.

Qirngnuq flew home to Kugaaruk late last week to meet with hamlet and GN officials.

“As you know, the priority is to identify a space that can be temporarily used to hold classes until such a time as portable classroom can be brought into the community,” Qirngnuq told the legislature.

“Despite the pain that the community is presently enduring, people are united. I want to express my appreciation to everyone in the community who is contributing to the effort.”

Modular classrooms are expected to come by summer sealift, which typically arrives in Kugaaruk in late August.

Inaksajak was at home Feb. 28 when he received a call about the fire at approximately 11 p.m. By the following morning, most of the school had burnt to the ground, except for its stone entrance.

The Nunavut RCMP said last week that police have charged a 13-year-old local youth with arson in connection to the fire.

“It was surprising to hear that,” said Inaksajak, noting that arson is not a major issue in the community.

“We probably have to get together with the school, the hamlet and other organization to figure things out and find out what we can do better.”

Inaksajak said the fire raised a larger issue, which is the limited firefighting resources most communities in Nunavut have to work with.

“The firefighters worked hard and they did their best,” he said. “But it’s really hard when you’re in an isolated community. It’s hard to get what you need.”

A team of about a dozen volunteer firefighters responded to the Feb. 28 fire with the community’s single fire truck and two water trucks.

But the extreme cold kept freezing the hoses and trucks forcing firefighters to thaw out the water trucks in the municipal garage each time they went to refill their tanks.

The hamlet has ordered materials by sealift to build a new firehall in the community this summer.

“But it would help to have another truck,” Inaksajak said.

A couple of crowd-source fundraisers have been launched online in support of Kugaaruk, the proceeds of which will go to the community’s district education authority.

– With files from Peter Varga