Iqaluit apartment fire forces numerous residents to seek shelter

Cadet Hall opened as warming centre for people displaced by blaze; flames, heavy smoke as emergency crews work into the night

A fire tears through the Noble House apartment building in Iqaluit Wednesday night, forcing residents to take shelter at a city-run warming centre set up at the nearby cadet hall. (Photo by Jason Sudlovenick, Special to Nunatsiaq News)

By Daron Letts

Fire ripped through an Iqaluit apartment building, taking less than five hours to destroy it, forcing its residents to seek shelter Wednesday night at a nearby restaurant and an emergency warming shelter.

Around 6 p.m., firefighters responded to a fire at Building 1088, known as the Noble House, on Mivvik Street, kitty-corner from city hall.

By 10:30 p.m. the blaze had completely destroyed the three-storey structure.

Its residents were forced to seek shelter. Some who fled their homes initially took cover in the nearby Yummy Shawarma restaurant across the street that stayed open and accommodated evacuees.

Firefighters were in and out of the building since 7 p.m.

At about 9:30 p.m., the City of Iqaluit announced a warming shelter was open at the cadet hall for people displaced by the fire.

By 8:30 p.m., about one-third of the apartment block was engulfed in flames. Firefighters had contained the blaze to that portion for several hours.

But wind blew the fire across the roof toward next half of the building. Winds gusted to 60 km/h, according to Environment Canada. Heavy smoke billowed from the front of the building. Around 6:15 p.m, the amount of smoke seemed to be intensifying.

In a Facebook post around 7:30 p.m., the City of Iqaluit asked residents to avoid the area around 1088 Noble House and said access to that part of the city is restricted while emergency crews continue to work.

At 7:45 p.m., Chad Mentus, who lives in the block downwind from the fire, moved his snow machine away from the building at 7:45 p.m.

“I don’t want anything to happen to this,” he said, driving away from the smoke.

Soon after the fire broke out, Iqaluit residents on Facebook were organizing to collect donations of clothing and supplies for the affected families.

At 10 p.m., an excavator began tearing down the remaining portion of the building. By  10:30 p.m., the final portion of the structure was ablaze.

Nunatsiaq News has asked for information from the City of Iqaluit and the RCMP but officials were not immediately available to say how many units and families were affected or if any injuries were reported.

Nunatsiaq News will have more coverage on this fire and the impact on the building’s residents on Thursday.

  • Fire engulfs a building at 1088 Mivvik St. in Iqaluit on Wednesday night. (Photo by Daron Letts)

 

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(28) Comments:

  1. Posted by Joe on

    Our fire department has not been able to save many buildings and that catch on fire….what’s going on with them!

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    • Posted by Firecity on

      Yes, last time I was there to visit a few buildings burned to the ground. They might need more training

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      • Posted by Smokey on

        For some reason when a house or apartment building is starting to get on fire they don’t seem to go inside the building to spray the fire but try and put the fire out from the outside.
        I’m not sure if this is due to their training and safety but for this apartment it started in one unit and it wasn’t a huge fire when it started but again trying to put it out from the outside and not hitting the fire directly. Not sure what’s going on here but maybe a inquiry should be done as we have so many fires for our population and our fire department struggles to put them out,
        Unlike other communities our fire department is part of the city and on salaries.

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    • Posted by 867 on

      With that logic, what’s going on with the fire department in L-A too eh?

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      • Posted by Frederick on

        There were sprinklers in this as I seen them when I was there

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        • Posted by Mark on

          The topic of sprinklers has come up repeatedly, with people noting that they have seen sprinkler heads inside the building.

          However, simply observing the presence of sprinkler heads in a building does not mean that the building is equipped with a working sprinkler system.

          For a sprinkler system to be effective, the entire system needs to be designed and engineered properly, including all the piping and ancillary aspects. And, it also needs to be installed correctly.

          And, a sprinkler system needs proper maintenance and regular inspections by expert technicians who specialize in this kind of work.

          Also, any changes in the building layout (such as renovations or change of use of space) will likely require any sprinkler system (as well as other systems such as HVAC, wiring, etc.) to be re-engineered and updated accordingly. A classic example arises if, for example, someone decides to convert an office into a restaurant. Right there, that has huge implications for multiple systems.

          There are many other aspects of building design that are also of relevance. For example, HVAC systems need to be designed for fire safety. Examples include automatic fire dampers in the ductwork, safety shutdowns of boilers, and the presence and documented professional maintenance of numerous other safety-related subsystems and components.

          Also, intrinsically fireproof construction should be located around all “hot items”. For example, it always amazes me to see boilers and furnaces installed with nothing but drywall around them. When you really think about it, even standard residential kitchens should have fireproofing around their ranges. But even today, it is still considered acceptable to have wooden cabinets above and around a kitchen range. Now imagine what happens if heated oil catches fire on the range, all while the homeowner happens to fall asleep on the couch (or maybe have a medical event of some type).

          And, this also takes us to the topic of building codes. I note that Nunavut only adopted building codes starting in 2017. Before that, everything was a free-for-all. And, the Noble House (1088) Building was clearly much older than that.

          In any case, we still have no formal insight into the cause of that fire. It is up to the authorities to decide what information to release from their investigative activities.

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  2. Posted by Fire Fighter on

    Building apartment buildings saves money on land and construction, compared to building single houses. But when fire strikes a wooden building like this, you usually lose everything. In this case 60 units, most of them housing, a few offices, were lost in one blaze.

    Iqaluit gained 18 one-bedroom apartments last year. Last night it lost 60, mostly two-bedroom apartments.

    Time to re-think residential planning in Nunavut.

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  3. Posted by Mark on

    The City of Iqaluit fire department responded quickly and did their best, and they continue to do their best. Firefighting is a very difficult job. In my earlier years, I did marine firefighting myself and I know how difficult it is to fight a raging fire. Even with the best gear (and the City of Iqaluit has high-quality equipment) and even with the most dedicated, best-trained staff (which the City also has), apartment-building fires are very difficult to quell. It is very common for the entire building to be a total loss. This is especially the case for older buildings or poorly-built (or poorly-engineered) buildings.

    It is also important to remember that the highest priority of the fire department is that all the people are safely out and accounted for. A building can always be replaced, but people cannot be.

    Although the cause of the fire is not yet known, potential causes include hot-oil-type cooking and faulty heating boilers. Other possibilities could include arson, electrical wiring issues, faulty appliances, tenant smoking, lithium-ion-battery fires, and so on. In any case, it will be interesting to see what the investigation reveals.

    Given how easily the whole building burned and given how the fire progressed (as can easily be observed through a zoom lens), it seems to be a safe bet that this building did not have a sprinkler system. This implies poor engineering. (I do not know the age of the building. All that I can find online right now is the land-survey documentation registered with Canada Lands, and this information dates from 1972. That gives no insight into the actual building age.)

    My view, as a civil engineer, is that every MURB (multi-unit residential building) should have a sprinkler system, with no grandfathering allowed. Existing buildings would need to be retrofitted, but this should be made mandatory. (For reference, consider the deadly fire on January 23, 2014 at Résidence du Havre seniors’ home in L’Isle-Verte, Quebec. 32 people died there. The formal cause was ascribed to a cigarette. But poor engineering, for example the lack of sprinklers, was also a major factor.)

    Various other engineered features could also be included to improve safety. For example, fireproof cooking enclosures around kitchen ranges would be valuable. Better-designed ranges (i.e. induction-type only) would also be helpful.

    Fireproof boiler rooms would also be immensely valuable (and would have averted the loss of the Nunatsiaq-Ayaya Building back in February 2024). Other construction details, too numerous to mention here, would also be valuable.

    But given rampant inflation (a complex topic in itself), the cost of construction today has ballooned so much that better engineering is always the first thing to be cut. This is why we are paying through the nose for housing in Nunavut (for example, each unit in a MURB can cost roughly 1 million dollars to build), but we are not getting the quality that would reasonably be expected from such a princely sum!

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  4. Posted by Newly homeless person on

    They couldn’t put out a birthday candle….. Honestly who hires these people. What’s the average age of these guys 21??? In a place where our infrastructure and housing is so critical you’d think we would invest in the protection of it. Where the f was the the airport fire truck. This is getting out of control and people need to be held accountable for mishandling these situations and find people who can do the job with experience.

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    • Posted by Shame on

      Shame on you. Can you imagine spending all night fighting a fire in freezing weather only to wake up to read comments such as these. Be better, these comments are disgusting. These people are heroes that you don’t deserve. Go work in a field where you have to rush to an emergency you coward behind keyboard.

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  5. Posted by Think About It on

    I can’t believe the amount of complaining in the comments. I believe the majority of the first responders who show up to these fires are volunteers. I realize that we have some full-time firefighters but we also have some great volunteers. The conditions in the North do not make it possible to effortlessly fight fires. What was the temp last night, -25 without the wind, pitch black, spraying water onto a fully engulfed building. I think we need to be grateful to the people who protect the items we cherish. If you think you can do better, I believe the City may have openings to volunteer to be a firefighter.

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  6. Posted by Phil on

    I lived there many years and this is sad! It was great housing and served many purposes over the years… I KnOW the Firefighters put up a valiant fight but, that’s a huge building with a lot of common space for the fire to travel AND it’s very dry! Add the wind and the size of the building and it becomes a whirlwind! It’s gonna be hard to replace. I’m glad nobody was hurt but I feel for everyone that lost so many personal items! TVs etc don’t matter but all the personal stuff hurts!

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  7. Posted by Howard Kilby on

    I have always wondered why the airport fire department never gets involved in helping when fires happen in Iqaluit. The schools , the cathedral and now this. Something to think about

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    • Posted by affected on

      they did and they help when needed. i don’t think you know, but they were there last night trying to help put it out. can you not add useless shit to this. you are not affected, i lost my home and everything. something to think about , would be knowing the right thing to say. obviously you don’t know anything about the right thing to say if you are saying baseless information.

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  8. Posted by alex on

    Real classy comments from people who didn’t step up and try to put the fire out last night. Thank you to Iqaluit Firefighters for putting their lives on the line to help the community. It is a thankless job from Nunatsiaq commentors.

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  9. Posted by Andy on

    I’m very sorry about the fire, the loss of the building, including the tenants’ possessions, and, of course, the displacement of its residents.
    Iqalummiut have always been very supportive in helping each other, and it will not be different this time. Iqalummiut already started donating food, clothing, and hygiene products, but I’m sure much more is needed. It will not be the same as putting on your own pair of jeans, but it’s just a temporary solution.

    I hope nobody got hurt and that all tenants had property insurance. Now, the most difficult recovery phase starts. From completing insurance claims to applying for new identification cards, bank cards, etc. All of this is not as important as getting a new place to live, and a roof over your head.

    Unfortunately, all of your belongings are gone and this is very sad. However, those are of material value and replaceable.

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  10. Posted by CB on

    I am so sorry for those who lost their homes, businesses, offices and possessions. It’s a sad turn of events that will cause a massive ripple effect in Iqaluit and beyond for some time to come.

    And I am grateful no one lost their life. No unfortunate residents, no brave firefighters who showed up to give service, nobody. For small blessings, I am truly grateful. Thank you.

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  11. Posted by People are so quick to judge on

    Shame on all of you criticizing the fire department. For a building of this size in the south you would have multiple town responding with equipment and fire fighters and still buildings are a total loss. Even if the fire is put out the smoke and water damage would be enough to have to completely rebuild. The fire fighters worked hard to the best of their abilities but the wind picked up and that is something they can’t control.

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  12. Posted by Grateful on

    Thank goodness no one was hurt. My sympathies to all those impacted.

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  13. Posted by 25 year firefighter on

    Challenge for you. Go from a sound sleep to a full out adrenaline run in under 1 minute with a temp change of 50 degrees, carry 75 pounds of equipment, go into a building with smoke, fire, concern for backdraft, flash over, falling cielings, holes in floors, drag out victims, bury your partners . Do this thousands of times over you career then share your thoughts. For now though go to your nearest fire house, police station or hospital emergency and say” Thank you”

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    • Posted by Nick DAoust on

      24 2- bedroom units and 13 1-bedrom units and commercial spaces. The building had sprinklers.

  14. Posted by Arna on

    For the buildings the fire department has not saved, they have saved more than we know. Firefighting in Nunavut poses so many challenges, including isolation from neighbouring fire departments in other communities. Generally in the south there are just more fire fighters and fire trucks to respond from fire halls close by. The freezing cold risks lines getting frozen, and the state and design of buildings in isolated communities exacerbate the problem in the event of the fire. Firefighters risk their lives , they run toward danger , they are always on call, and they get a lot of calls. For all the buildings lost over the years all around Nunavut, even resulting to the point where home owners are unable to obtain insurance, we don’t know how many building they have saved. Responding to tundra fires, calls in the middle of the night, subjecting themselves to traumatic stress so that they can limit the damage as much as they can. All this so the community can live in as much peace as possible. The issue is complicated and it deserves a more complicated multi faced solution. Just like everything else.

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    • Posted by Jimmy on

      Maybe they need a change in the Fire Department management? More firefighters? Can council answer to why they allow this to happen?

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  15. Posted by Two Cents on

    Not criticizing the fire department here but I have to wonder, were all those vehicles parked across the Caribou Cabs garage a hinderance to the fire department? They’re a hinderance when coming from west 40 and having to slowly creep past the stop sign to see if there’s on coming traffic. I can’t imagine the FD having a difficult time trying to get as close to the building as they can and having the line up of vehicles in the way.

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