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An unidentified group of people pull a burning boat from a yard on Calder Crescent, Monday. - photo courtesy of Sean Purcell

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - It could have been a serious disaster, Orest Watsyk said.

A group of people in a Yellowknife neighbourhood rescued his daughter's home at 23 Calder Crescent from a burning boat on Monday. Watsyk said the boat was burning in his daughter's yard, near her house and only 20 feet away from a pair of propane tanks beside a neighbouring home.

Watsyk called the unidentified group Good Samaritans. "It would have been a much more serious disaster, it was quick thinking and quick action," said Watsyk.

"How often do you see that?"

His grandson was inside the house when the boat caught fire in the yard. From inside his bedroom on the second floor Morgan Watsyk saw the rising smoke.

"It was really black," he said, "I didn't know what was on fire, but I knew it was just outside my window."

He ran outside to investigate. "The flames were burning halfway up the tree," said Watsyk.

Don Lyons, who lives next door to the Watsyk house, said the fire was billowing a lot of, black smoke into the air.

"It was horrendous and really going - flames were burning 10-12 feet into the air," said Lyons.

Deputy Fire Chief Darcy Hernblad said a recreational boat caught fire at the scene.

The boat was on a trailer originally sitting near a pile of lumber and under a crop of trees.

"Those fiberglass boats generate a lot of heat, a lot of smoke, and it's easy with the right exposure for them to catch another structure on fire," said Hernblad.

He said if the unidentified group hadn't acted the department might have found themselves battling a couple of house fires Monday afternoon. "We can't thank them enough."

But he cautioned against people acting on their own.

He said firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze in the street and eventually removed the boat from the scene.

Lieut. Chris Boulay said Calder Crescent was closed for an hour and a half. He said the department had no reports of any injuries during the incident. Department officials said they have not yet identified the cause of the fire, and an investigation is underway.

"They did a big service for the neighbours," said Boulay, "but when the fire is fully involved like that you don't want to get too close without protection or you could get burned and then we've got a big problem - property can be replaced, people can't," he said.