Fire damages Baker Lake food bank, halts services

A fire that broke out around noon last Friday has severely damaged the Abluqta Society’s building in Baker Lake, forcing the community’s only food bank to suspend operations indefinitely. 

No injuries were reported, but smoke from the blaze spread into nearby buildings, prompting the temporary closure of both Jonah Amitnaaq Secondary School and Rachel Arngnammaktiq Elementary School as a precaution. 

“As of now, we don’t have anywhere to go,” said Morteza Beepenah, the society’s treasurer and a teacher at the high school.

Beepenah said he was on his lunch break when he first heard about the fire through social media.

He said he arrived on the scene around 12:30 p.m., when firefighters and hamlet water trucks were already working to contain flames burning beneath the building.

While the hamlet is waiting for conformation from the fire marshal, the fire seems to have been caused by an electrical failure, the hamlet’s senior administrative officer Sheldon Dorey said.

The society had been renting the building — a former daycare that was damaged by fire in 2021 and later repaired — from the hamlet since last October.

However, repeated sewage and pipe failures made the space unusable for about two weeks before the fire, Beepenah said. 

The Abluqta Society has been struggling to maintain stable programming after being forced out of its previous building in early 2025 due to black mould.

Beepenah said the society’s previous landlord, Piruqsaijit Ltd., had recently indicated there was a possibility the group could move back into its former space.

He said the organization visited the building last month and was told repairs — including work on broken pipes, a furnace and kitchen fixtures — are being worked on. But there has been no followup, he said.

The organization distributes about 150 hampers, typically every month, with demand reaching up to 220 households. The last full food bank was held in mid-February, Beepenah added, and supplies were depleted within about an hour and 15 minutes.

Its hot lunch program, when running, serves roughly 30 people daily, he said. 

In recent months, their services have largely shifted to grocery vouchers ranging from $50 to $100 depending on household size. 

Beepenah said the fire has now left the organization without a headquarters to store donated food or coordinate distributions.

“We have to find a place so we can move our equipment and supplies,” he said.

The group is now urgently searching for a temporary space with a kitchen, freezer and dining area. There are no available buildings in the hamlet of roughly 2,000 residents, Dorey said. 

Despite the setback, the organization will continue issuing vouchers when possible and distributing country food during the caribou migration season.