SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Dark brown smoked billowed from Latham Island Thursday afternoon when a fire ripped through the top floor of a residence on the corner of Otto Drive and Hearne Hill Road.

Firefighters worked to control a blaze that ripped through the top floor of a Latham Island home on Thursday afternoon. The fire shut down the road into Old Town for several hours. - Kira Curtis/NNSL photo

Dennis Marchiori, the city's director of Public Safety, confirmed it was a chimney fire that started the blaze at 20 Otto Drive.

It's not clear if there was anybody home at the time.

Neighbour Joyce Caines was at home enjoying her first day off for the holidays when another neighbour banged on her door.

"I was relaxing on the couch reading a book and I heard, like my door being kicked and loud knocking, and I knew it was urgent," Caines said.

"I could see all this smoke coming over the porch and when I slipped my boots on and stepped out of the house I looked up and I saw the flames coming from the upper level of my neighbour's house." she said from the park across from her neighbour's house, watching flames spit from the upstairs window.

Marchiori said firefighters were working hard to contain the fire to the upper level of the house and minimize the damage. Water is always an issue in Old Town because the area is served by trucked-in water during the winter months, but Marchiori said they were lucky to have closed off the road right away leaving room for the tanker truck.

"The water situation is actually good, we have some water supply and some back up water supply, again it's Old Town so the biggest difficulty is the narrow roads and getting in here and backing in." He said, "we have another tanker ready to come in and two tankers have been able to come back and forth, no issues."

Firefighters were still working on the blaze at press time but had control of the flames and had entered the house. The extent of the damage was unconfirmed at press time and the road into Old Town, at Franklin Avenue and School Draw Avenue, was closed for several hours diverting traffic back toward School Draw Avenue.

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