Easter weekend Iqaluit fire ‘not suspicious,’ RCMP says

Fire Chief Stephen McGean described blaze as city’s biggest in 5 years

Firefighters extinguish a burning building in Iqaluit on April 8. (File photo by Jason Sudlovenick, special to Nunatsiaq News)

By Jeff Pelletier - Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

An Easter weekend fire in Iqaluit that destroyed a building under construction will not be investigated by police, says RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Pauline Melanson.

“I was advised today that the fire was deemed not suspicious, therefore the RCMP are not investigating it,” Melanson said in an email Monday.

The fire broke out before 7 a.m. on April 8 at a construction site near the Capital Suites hotel.

The blaze caused a large cloud of smoke to spread over several blocks of the city.

Residents were asked to avoid the area as firefighters worked through the evening and into the next day to put out the bulk of the burning.

Nobody was inside the building at the time.

Iqaluit fire Chief Stephen McGean described the fire as the largest the city has seen in five years since the 2018 Northmart fire.

 

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