Iqaluit community steps up to help 6 families displaced by fire
Donation drive started for affected families; cause undetermined but building will likely be demolished, city spokesperson says
A six-unit residential building in Iqaluit shows obvious damage from a fire Thursday that displaced six families. (Photo by David Lochead)
Families who lost their homes after a fire Thursday at a multi-unit residential building in Iqaluit’s Lower Plateau area have been moved to temporary accommodations.
Five of the six units were staff housing for the Nunavut Planning Commission, executive director Sharon Ehaloak confirmed. All of the units were occupied.
“Four of the five families from what I understand have lost everything,” she said.
The fire broke out at around 1 p.m. Thursday at Building 5316. Twenty-two Iqaluit firefighters responded along with fire trucks and ambulances, city spokesperson Kent Driscoll told Nunatsiaq News.
About 11 hours later, just after midnight, the scene was declared closed, he said, adding no residents or firefighters were injured.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, Driscoll said.
Ehaloak called it “a devastating loss to each of our staff, their families and to the commission as this is the majority of our staff housing.”
On Friday, at least four of the units showed obvious exterior damage with the front right side of the building burned and blackened.
“We don’t want to guess, and can’t say for sure, but all our experience tells us that the building will have to be demolished,” Driscoll said.
The planning commission has found temporary accommodations for the displaced families, with help from the Government of Nunavut, the federal government and TBG Construction Ltd.
“The commission is aggressively trying to secure longer-term housing units for our staff until the replacement structure is built,” Ehaloak said.
In the aftermath of the fire, a donation drive was started for people to provide much-needed essentials for the families, such as winter apparel. A variety of clothing is needed as the families have children ranging from three years old to teenagers, Ehaloak said.
She said planning commission staff were going through donated items Friday afternoon to see what is still needed.
Also, an online GoFundMe fundraising campaign was set up for the affected families. As of Friday afternoon, more than $1,600 was pledged, exceeding the intended goal of $1,000.
One of the six families has indicated they are no longer in need of donations, the GoFundMe page stated.
Ehaloak said staff at the Nunavut Water Board donated $1,600 to help the planning commission staff affected by the fire.
“Many people have been reaching out since late yesterday and it is so appreciated,” she said.
Counselling services have been provided to staff and their families, she added.
“This is a devastating event and it drives home not only in our community but in other communities as well,” Ehaloak said. “The shortage of housing units and a loss on this scale impacts so many people.”
Housing authorities never fix burned houses they just board them up and leave them vacant. Much cheaper to fix than to build new houses.
It’s not cheaper at all, because you’re never going to be able to fix all the damage from a fire like that in a multiplex. Even if they were able to renovate it, I’m sure the owner would never be able to insure it, and the cost to bring up all the building materials to fix it would be almost identical to the cost for the supplies for a whole building so why not just start from the pilings up.
Glad to hear people are safe. It’s good to see others reaching out to help them too, I can’t imagine the loss ❤️ Iqaluit, don’t forget we care during times like this, we speak about negatives a lot in our city but, don’t forget the other side, people care and reach out when they can.
Why is this the exact same building type as the past two building fires.
Although I don’t know how the fire started. The amount of damage is huge considering the time the IFD has to respond to a fire they can see from their fire house. Someone needs to consider raising a concern about types of building materials used,the fire just spreads so fast in these buildings. It seems like a huge red flag that it’s the same buildings being destroyed by fires.
Any building with modern furniture and other interior modern material, such as carpets, blankets, the wood used in desks and cabinets and so on, burns several times faster and hotter than used to be the case. The building construction doesn’t help, but that’s not the primary cause for how fast fires get going, that just means the building is more likely to be a loss if the fire gets past the drywall.
Why are residents not responsible for their own accommodations? Anywhere else in Canada you have tenants insurance for this reason. The handouts continue.
Good grief. Even with insurance, it takes time to sort everything out and pay it out. They needed immediate assistance. I used to work for a personal lines insurance company down south. It is the case down south too. Do you think a claims adjuster is just going to pop out of the bushes or EMT them that same day? Jeepers. They just lost everything, pictures, memories, comforts, needs, their heads are spinning.
There’s no bushes on Baffin Island.
to: why free lunch; you’re sad care of a person. many many employers provide subsidized housing for their valued employees. New Canadians, the whole half of Nunavut is employee related housing. Hurts so much to see heartless postings….
I’m glad the community has stepped up to help the 6 families.
When will the community step up to help the thousand others who were homeless in Iqaluit before this latest fire?
Or is that just too big a job? And anyway, they are not “like us”, or are they?
Most of us with homes are just “your job has been declaired redundant” away from homelessness.
It’s way past time for a new perspective on housing in Nunavut.
A thousand homeless in Iqaluit??
What is your source of that figure?
The GN does not release such figures. They likely do not collect them.
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About 10 years ago a survey found about 600 homeless in Iqaluit. A few years later the GN did a “point-in-time” study and counted less than 100 homeless in all of Nunavut.
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In response an Inuk in Iqaluit spent two days collecting several hundred signatures of homeless people in Iqaluit.
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Kids keep growing up, but very few homes are being built for them to move into. The rate of housing loss due to deterioration appears to be greater than the rate of house constrution. The Department of Education website tells us that about 82 Inuit enter the school system each year. A similar number leave school every year and eventually end up as homeless parents or continuing to live with mom and dad.
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Many Inuit in Iqaluit are homeless couch-surfers, even if they have a full time GN job. Being able to afford to pay rent does not mean you can find a place to rent.
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About 15 years ago I heard a performer (on break) berate an Inuk woman for “throwing herself at a man who obviously was not interested in her”. The woman stood her ground and gave back as good as she got, saying, “I’ve been homeless for more than two years and will do anything to have a place to live.” The performer had no response.
> Kids keep growing up, but very few homes are being built for them to move into. The rate of housing loss due to deterioration appears to be greater than the rate of house construction.
You know that anyone can build a home, right, not just the GN?
I used to work up in Iqaluit and Resolute but am now retired down in Surrey B.C in an apartment building. I’m the Junior Fire Safety Officer for this building.
For apartments, they must all be equipped with smoke alarms and heat detectors. That’s under the B.C. Fire Code.The smoke alarms mounts on the ceiling and always go off 1st in a fire. The heat detector goes off if there is a sudden rise in heat over several minutes.
That is mounted on the ceiling also, close to the kitchen, but is wired up to the building fire alarm panel to go off on all 4 floors together. Anyone hearing the alarm bells is to call the Surrey Fire department right away at 911 and then evacuate the building.
This equipment is inspected once each year by Westech and the Fire Department checks the records once each year.
Forgot to mention- every floor is equipped with a fire cabinet, a fire hose and an extinguisher. Sure hope they can put those things into the houses and get the Canadian government to fund the settlements.
Seemed like less house fires when people were allowed to smoke inside. How’s the enforcement been on this…
That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever read, and not true.
Also, there would be fewer fires due to smoking if people made the choice to not smoke period.
That said, the cause of the fire hasn’t been determined, so your point is irrelevant.