Fire destroys historic church in Cambridge Bay

SARA MINOGUE

Firefighters in Cambridge Bay stood awed as a small abandoned church went up in flames in the middle of the night last Wednesday.

”It looks suspicious,” said Fire Chief Keith Morrison, who arrived on the scene by skidoo, at ten to one in the morning, to find the blaze in full force.

The old church sits alone on top of a hill a short hike from town. There was no plumbing or electrical wiring in the building, and the church hasn’t been in use for several years.

Before the fire, snow drifted in through broken windows and covered the few items that remained in the building, which has stood on the hill ever since nine Catholic parishioners opened it in 1954 after binding its stone walls with a peculiar mixture of seal oil and clay.

Now, the roof is gone, and the remaining furniture and timber is destroyed.

“The most distinctive thing about the building, which was the stone walls, actually survived pretty well,” Morrison said. “They’re mostly intact and in fairly good shape.”

The church was the only remnant of the Cambridge Bay’s old town, and Mayor Michelle Gillis said she would like to see it restored as a tourist attraction and local landmark.

“I have grown to live with the stone church and I hope to have it here for my children and grandchildren as I am sure all residents will agree,” Gillis said in an email.

The hamlet will wait for the report of a structural engineer to decide whether the remaining walls can withstand reconstruction.

In addition to losing a unique piece of history, the hamlet is also stung by what is widely believed to be another case of arson.

“This is a loss to the community and I want to stress that our community has been damaged a number of times by fire — many of which were intentionally set by arsonists,” Gillis said.

She cites the Ilihakvik School, which was burned to the ground by children playing with matches in 1998; the Luke Novoligak community hall, which suffered extensive damage from fire last year; and fires in privately-owned cabins on the land outside of town.

“We do not yet know who or what caused the fire, however, if it was by arson I hope the community backs me in teaching our people that this cannot continue any longer,” Gillis said. “Our community is suffering greatly because of this.”

The fire chief agreed.

“In Cambridge Bay, the vast majority of fires — practically all the structural fires that we’ve had over the last couple of years — haven’t been that the wiring was wrong and it failed or something,” Morrison said.

Instead, they’ve been caused by accidents, negligence, or arsonists, he said.

“That’s becoming a major concern, and it should be a concern to everybody.”

The fire in the old Catholic church comes just six months after St. Jude’s Anglican Cathedral in Iqaluit was destroyed by a man who broke in and set fire to the altar.

Eighteen months earlier, an accidental fire destroyed the Catholic church in Kugluktuk. Two weeks later, a man broke into that church and set fire to its charred remains, losing his life in the process.