Duplex fire claims two elders in Kuujjuaraapik

Two elders died in a tragic fire this weekend in Kuujjuaraapik.

Saturday night at 10:30 p.m., a fire started in one of the community’s older duplexes.

Lucy and Noah Meeko, a couple both in their mid-70s, were in the house.

The smoke detector went off, alerting Lucy Meeko, who was downstairs, to the fire, said Hugues Beaulieu, spokesperson for the Sûreté du Québec provincial police force in Rouyn-Noranda.

“Mrs. Meeko noticed there was smoke coming from upstairs, so she tried to go up and alert her husband who was there,” Beaulieu said.

She tried to reach him several times but was turned away by the smoke. Finally, she went over to a neighbour’s house to call the local fire department.

“Then she went back inside her house and tried to get her husband out again, however, the firefighters weren’t able to retrieve him until after they had put the fire out,” Beaulieu said.

Noah Meeko perished in the fire. His wife died later of smoke inhalation at the health clinic.

A team of five investigators from the SQ went to Kuujjuaraapik to determine the causes of the fire. They concluded that the fire could have resulted from a cigarette that was either forgotten or poorly put out or perhaps from a burning candle.

“We conclude the fire was an accident, although we may never exactly know the cause. It was not electrical or criminal in origin,” Beaulieu.

Lucy Meeko was a well-known carver, whose works are in many museums and private collections.

“Both she and her husband were very active in sharing their culture and would take the school kids on camps,” said Rev. Tom Martin, minister of St. Edmund’s Anglican parish in Kuujjuaraapik.

Noah Meeko was a member of the community’s justice committee and had just returned from meeting of justice committee members in Puvirnituq.

“They’ve lost someone invaluable,” said Lucy Grey, who is coordinating Nunavik’s justice committees for Makivik Corporation.