RADILIH KOE'/FORT GOOD HOPE - Fort Good Hope's former band office and a vacant house burned to the ground during the wee hours of Thursday, Dec. 10 in two separate fires that police suspect were deliberately set.

The volunteer fire department had already arrived when RCMP responded to a fire at the empty three-bedroom house around 4 a.m., Fort Good Hope's RCMP detachment commander said.

"Once we were at the house fire, approximately five minutes later we were alerted to a fire at the old band complex," said Cpl. Bob Wolfenden. "We suspect arson - it's definitely a high possibility."

Police are investigating both fires. Wolfenden said arson is uncommon in the charter community.

"It's a pretty rare occurrence. We had an abandoned house burned here in the summer time, but again, whether it's related or not we can't say for sure."

Band employees moved into a new office across town in the fall. The band's previous building on a hilltop overlooking the hamlet remained open until last month as the home of the community radio station.

"It was in the process of being dismantled but there was still a lot of stuff that was stored in there," said Chief Arthur Tobac. "The old building was set to be taken apart in a safe way."

At home about a kilometre away, former fire chief J. Douglas Louison watched from his window early Thursday morning as flames rose high from the old building, which had also served as the community hall.

"It lit up the far end of town pretty good," he said, adding the wind carried black ash past the airport, which is more than three kilometres from the old band office.

Louison said the fire was the worst he's seen in Fort Good Hope, although he recalled a late summer night about four years ago when the fire department had to deal with five fires at a time.

"The kids were on the tear that night and decided to let the town know how they felt, I guess," he said. "They lit up some old, abandoned buildings all over town."

Robert Bourassa, co-owner of Arctic Enterprises Ltd., the contracting company that owns the now-gutted three-bedroom house, said he's "a little ticked off" that the building his company recently spent upwards of $40,000 renovating for employees to live in is "just rubble" now.

"We had a mechanic living there but he moved out so we had actually froze up the place a couple of weeks ago, so there was no one in the house," he said. "We put a lot of money into it, fixing it up for staff. That was going to be our staff house - well, not no more."

"I hope somebody does get caught this time because it seems like with all the arson we've had over the years, no one's ever been busted. So it would be nice if somebody finally gets caught here."