Major crimes unit still working on Iqaluit’s Creekside fire

The clean-up of the 300-block of Iqaluit’s Creekside Village which burned Feb. 26 is nearly finished, as this view taken April 18 shows. However, the investigation into the cause of the disastrous fire, which left many homeless and killed two people, continues. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

The RCMP major crimes unit continues to work on an investigation of the Feb. 26 Creekside Village fire, which destroyed 22 housing units left scores of people homeless, and killed two people, Sgt. Kevin Lewis told the Iqaluit city council at its April 17 meeting.

“The RCMP will do quite a lot of interviews on that,” Lewis said.

Some of those interviews will use polygraph, or lie detector tests, he said.

In a later report to council, Blaine Wiggins, the acting fire chief, told council he would not talk anymore about the nature of the fire, which spread rapidly even though firefighters were alerted about it at an early stage.

Wiggins said a fire detection system in the housing complex alerted the department before any Creekside residents had called it in.

But he said wind, extreme cold and other factors that he didn’t want to talk about due to the continuing investigation, put the fire out of control even though firefighters arrived at the scene within a few minutes.

Police have yet to lay any charges in connection with the fire.