Nunavut rallies around family devastated by lethal tent fire

Ikie and Nina Kautuq of Pond Inlet in a photo posted on a GoFundMe fundraising site, devoted to raising money to help the family devastated by an Aug. 16 tent fire.

Ikie and Nina Kautuq of Pond Inlet with their four children in a photo pictured on the Facebook site which is now raising money for the family. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE KAUTUQ FAMILY)

This polar bear skull, put up for bidding by Isaac Irngaut on a popular Iqaluit Facebook auction page, helped raise more than $360 for the Kautuq family.

(Updated, Aug. 25, 9:35 a.m.)

The devastating Aug. 16 tent fire near Pond Inlet has claimed four victims: Ikie Kautuq, father of four, and three of his children, the Office of the Chief Coroner confirmed Aug. 25.

The injured family members had been medevaced to hospitals in Winnipeg and Ottawa for treatment. Now, only the mother, Nina Kautuq, and one child survives.

“The Office of the Chief Coroner is coordinating the investigation with Ontario Coroner Service and the Pond Inlet RCMP. There is no foul play suspected,” Nunavut chief coroner Padma Suramala said in a news release.

“On behalf of Department of Justice, the Office of the Chief Coroner conveys our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Pond Inlet community in this tragic situation,” Suramala said.

The tragedy affecting this young Pond Inlet family has rallied relatives, friends and people who never met them to help with donations of money.

This past weekend residents in Pangnirtung raised more than $4,300 to help the Kautuq family, while a Pond Inlet man put up a polar bear skull — which can be crafted into carvings or jewellery — up for auction on a popular Facebook auction page for Iqaluit to raise money for the family.

Ocean Umphrey, a cousin of Nina Kautuq, who lives in northern British Columbia, also went online to help: Umphrey created a Facebook page called “Tragedy in the Arctic: Family caught in Tent Fire in Pond Inlet Nunavut,” to help support the Kautuq family.

As of late Aug. 24, this page had received more than 700 likes and raised nearly $7,000.

“As a child I spend many years in Pond Inlet, growing up with Nina, I care a great deal about family and I find this is the only way I can directly help the Kautuq family, my cousin,” Umphrey said.

Family members in Ottawa need help with paying for hotel and food, she said.

“This will be a long healing process and [they] need family close by,” she said.

Umphrey also started a GoFundMe page for donations to assist the family, which has already raised more than $2,800.