Nunavik police investigate late-night house fire

A Dec. 3 fire completely destroyed a house in Kuujjuaq, but police say no one was injured. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Nunavik police have launched an investigation into an early morning weekend fire that leveled a Kuujjuaq home.

Firefighters in Kuujjuaq were called to the scene of a local house fire at about 1:30 a.m. Dec. 3. The home was completely destroyed in the fire, but no one was injured, the Kativik Regional Government said in an email to Nunatsiaq News.

The Kativik Regional Police Force is treating the fire as criminal, and the force has requested the help of the Sûreté du Québec’s arson squad, which specializes in fire investigation.

Police have yet to make any arrests related to the fire, the KRG said.

Over five years, the region lost an estimated $25.7 million worth of infrastructure, although the fire that destroyed Aupaluk’s Tarsakallak school in 2014 accounts for $16 million of that figure.

And fires in Nunavik tend to happen over the weekend—most often on Fridays—and at a higher frequency in the summer.