YELLOWKNIFE - Yellowknife firefighters were exhausted Monday after fighting three relatively large fires over the course of 16 hours.

The first fire struck Northlands trailer park Sunday night. Firefighters arrived on scene to find flames pouring from a trailer at 445 Norseman Dr.

An occupant escaped and a bystander stepped in to save a dog from the fire before firefighters arrived.

The firefighters arrived to face an aggressive fire inside the building, with fire coming from the front of the trailer, which was also engulfed in heavy smoke.

While the first team attacked the fire with water, more personnel had to be called on scene. In total two pumper trucks, two medics, and one command vehicle attended the scene with a total of 16 fire department personnel.

As the fire was brought under control one firefighter and the bystander who saved the dog were transported to Stanton Hospital. The firefighter was brought in for heat exhaustion, and the bystander for smoke inhalation.

Deputy fire chief Chucker Dewar said both situations were minor and both men were released from hospital shortly afterwards.

One of the house occupants was also sent to hospital.

Damage to the trailer is estimated at $300,000.

The occupants applied for a permit to construct an addition in July of 2005, according to city records. Neighbours confirmed that the addition was completed.

Dewar said that most of the damage was done to the main trailer, but the addition suffered smoke and heat damage.

According to neighbours, the occupants were two young men who played in a music group called the Underdogs, who performed at the Music in the Park festival two years ago.

But one neighbour, Alex Len, said that he wasn't sure who lived there because there were so many people going in and out of the house.

"At anytime, I would wake up at 3 a.m. and there were lots of people," said Len on Monday.

Immediate neighbour Stephen Cassell said he noticed several people coming and going shortly before the fire broke out but was unsure how many people were in the house at the time.

His wife noticed flames from the kitchen area around 9:30 p.m.

"I told my wife to call the fire department while I got the kids ready," said Cassell, around 10:30 p.m., Sunday night.

"I started packing up the kids, getting ready to go and by the time we were ready to go the fire department had arrived.

"By the time we left the flames were coming out the window."

The fire department ordered the Cassell family out while fighting the fire. He said he planned to check his house for smoke damage the next morning.

Dewar said yesterday that he was unable to contact the owners of the burnt house.

Just as paid on-call and career firefighters were heading home for the night, pagers and radios went off again for a structure fire next to the Petro Canada bulk fuel plant on Kam Lake Road.

Firefighters arrived to see flames and smoke shooting out of a 6,000 square-foot Quonset hut storage garage and attached shipping, sea containers that caught fire at 115 Kam Lake Rd.

Inside the hut sat a goldmine of flammables, including used oil, propane tanks and welding gas cylinders. Behind the hut, stood a massive silo of fuel just 50 metres from the hut.

Firefighters spent an hour working to gain access to the sea containers, and eventually brought the fire under control.

The same on-call firefighters came to back up the initial crew with a total of two pumpers, two tankers, one rescue vehicle, one medic, and one command vehicle on scene. In total, 16 fire department personnel worked to get the fire under control.

Raymond Foley, a truck driver with Petro Canada, said that there wasn't much immediate threat to the Petro Canada plant, but noted there was a large quantity of fuel on site.

Damage is estimated at $500,000 for the hut and its contents. No injuries were reported, and the GNWT Fire Marshal's Office is investigating the incident. So far the cause of the fire is unknown.

No rest yet for this group. The team was sent out once again at around 11 a.m. to respond to a structure fire called in by mine personnel at the Giant Mine site off Highway 4.

The vaporizer shed had caught fire. Mine staff turned off the gas and electricity before firefighters got on scene, leaving them to deal with the combustible insulation and some piled up planks of wood.

One pumper truck, one tanker, a rescue truck and a medic responded to the call, for a total of 11 personnel.

It took firefighters an hour and a half to put out the fire, luckily no injuries were reported. Cost of the damage is still unknown, said Dewar.

A good portion of the Yellowknife Fire Department crew was pretty exhausted after fighting three fires, said Dewar yesterday.

Not only were those firefighters on shift kept busy, but all paid on-call and career firefighters on standby were also called in to assist with the fires.

"It's not one shift getting hammered, it's everyone taking a lickin'," said Dewar.

"We were just hoping things would settle down."

Dewar said personnel at the fire department have noticed things usually come in threes.

"That's just the way it works sometimes...It'll be quiet then sometimes there's a flurry of activity," said Dewar. "If we have a fire we can usually count on two behind it."

Dewar said up to this point there is no reason to expect any connection between the three fires.

- with files from Jessica Klinkenberg.