Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 10/99) - While the Northwest Territories continues to experience the highest per capita fire-related death and injury rate in Canada, officials say they are striving for improvement.

Vince Steen, minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, tabled the Fire Marshal's 1998 Annual Report during the last sitting of the legislature and acknowledged the grim reality.

"The North continues to experience significant losses as a result of fire," he said. "Tragically, in 1998, a five-year-old boy died in a fire. Last year, fire losses in the NWT were worth $14.5 million. This was largely due to the loss of the Kilinik high school in Cambridge Bay."

Eric Bussey, the government's director of emergency services, said Thursday, that though 1998 saw just the one fire-related fatality and 11 injuries, the five-year statistics from 1993 to 1997 paint a more dismal picture. Compared to the Canadian average of 1.7 deaths per 100,000 people, the NWT had 5.2, and compared to the Canadian average of 13.32 injuries, the NWT had 20.6.

"Last year was good, but it doesn't make for a trend," he said.

Bussey said the reasons for the territory's high averages are varied.

"I think it goes back to a lot of preventable fires," he said. "A lot of the fires were alcohol-related, smoking was involved a bit, and most of the fire deaths were associated with residential fires and relate to the careless use of fire."

But Bussey said the $700,000 allocation in the territorial budget for fire-prevention would go toward two innovative prevention programs -- a Community Firefighter Training project designed with the help of the Alberta Firefighting School, and municipal and settlement operating assistance programs (known as MOAP and SOAP).

"We're consulting with the communities and the leaders, and training is important," he said. "We can give them money to buy equipment and supplies for their firefighting departments."

Bussey stressed the importance of good community relations.

"Sometimes development occurs in the communities that doesn't conform to building codes, and we don't always have the ability to monitor them," he said.

In Cambridge Bay, where children accidentally set off last August's blaze, Mayor Wilf Wilcox said he was awaiting direction from the new Nunavut government.

While praising the abilities of the hamlet's approximately 20 volunteer firefighters, Wilcox said he hoped funding would allow for the appointment of a full-time fire chief.

"Volunteers are the backbone of departments across the North and have always done a great job," he said. "But the reasons the community is seeking a full-time chief is to lead education, training and inspection."