Saturday fire was Iqaluit’s biggest in 5 years, says chief

It took more than a day for firefighters to fully extinguish a large fire that destroyed a building under construction in Iqaluit’s city core over the Easter weekend.

Dark clouds of smoke filled the sunny sky over the city Saturday morning from the fire that engulfed a building that was to house the new offices for the Iqaluit Dental Clinic, behind Queen Elizabeth Way near the Capital Suites hotel.

Extinguishing the fire at a construction site Saturday took Iqaluit’s fire department nearly 12 hours. The crew looked over the site from the morning of April 8 until it was fully out by noon on April 9, Iqaluit’s fire Chief Stephen McGean said. (Photo by David Lochead)

The last time there was a fire of that scale in Iqaluit would have been the Northmart fire in 2018, fire Chief Stephen McGean told Nunatsiaq News.

“This is probably the biggest one since,” he said.

McGean said the cause of the fire is still under investigation. Members of the Nunavut Fire Marshal’s office were on scene Tuesday.

McGean said the fire was called in at about 6:30 a.m. Saturday, and crews and trucks from the Iqaluit Fire Department remained at the scene until about 6 p.m.

Firefighters kept up a fire watch overnight, and the last few hotspots were put out by about noon Sunday, McGean said.

He said he could not pinpoint the exact location of the fire, but judging by the darker colour of the smoke it seemed to be inside the building and not somewhere on the outside.

Because the contractor for the building told McGean no one was inside, McGean decided not to send firefighters into the building to extinguish the fire.

“I didn’t want to put any firefighters at risk for nothing,” McGean said.

The fire was under control by noon Saturday, he said. To do that, the walls of the building were knocked down to ensure the fire wouldn’t spread.

McGean said a dumpster caught fire and a home beside the building had to be evacuated out of precaution.

By 6 p.m., the fire was extinguished. What was left was hot spots of steam or light smoke.

After getting the trucks and equipment cleaned, as well replacing the hoses, the fire trucks returned to the scene to hit those hotspots again until around 1 a.m. Sunday.

In the south, this type of fire would require a response of about 10 fire trucks and 100 staff, McGean said. But in Iqaluit, they had three trucks and 20 staff to respond to the fire.

Adding to the challenge, an hour after arriving on scene, a fire alarm sounded at another location and two medical calls were received, McGean said. While the fire alarm turned out to be a false alarm, the medical calls dealt with were serious.

Trucked water service in Iqaluit also had to be delayed because those trucks were needed at the fire scene.

McGean said a volunteer arrived with coffee and doughnuts for the firefighters, and the Aqsarniit Hotel, the city roads crew, and bylaw and airport staff offered help as well.

“Everybody put a hand in and it made the job go quick and easy,” McGean said.

After speaking with the building contractor, McGean said the intention is to construct a new building as soon as possible. There was no word of a damage estimate.