Human remains found at Creekside Village fire site

Iqaluit police say they found human remains at the site of the Creekside Village fire March 2. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Iqaluit police say they have found human remains at the site of the Creekside Village fire, which burned through 22 row housing units Feb. 26.

A March 2 RCMP news release said police will work closely with the office of Nunavut’s chief coroner to identify the remains.

Police have already said that there are two people unaccounted for since the Feb. 26 fire, who are believed to have been in one of the units affected by the fire.

Officials at Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit, who leased 21 of the 22 units destroyed by the fire, said earlier this week that the two missing people are the adult children of one of its students.

The victims’ mother, originally from Iqaluit, worked as a medical interpreter at the Qikiqtani General Hospital and was upgrading her training at the college.

The family was reported at home together Feb. 26 when the fire broke out.

The RCMP fenced off the charred units this week while its investigators look to determine the cause of the fire, which is reported to have started in unit 307.

The investigation at the scene is expected to continue over the next several days to confirm the possibility of more fatalities, police said.

The frozen wreckage will take investigators several days to go through, while a forensic team is expected to arrive in Iqaluit next week to help out.

Police are treating the fire as suspicious, as the RCMP does with any structural fire until proven otherwise.

Anyone with information about the blaze is asked to contact the RCMP at (867) 979-1111.

In the meantime, the college has provided grief counselling to the family of the victims as well to other students impacted by the tragedy.

And all 20 of the families who lost their homes in the fire have been provided temporary units in Iqaluit until the college can make longer-term arrangements.

The college’s old Ukkivik residence has been inundated with donations from across the community and the country, to the point where volunteers have requested no more in-kind donations.

Instead, people are asked to make donations to the Red Cross relief efforts by going to www.redcross.ca/iqaluitfire2012.