SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - After a hasty escape with only the clothes on their backs, a middle-aged couple huddled in the back of a cab watching helplessly as smoke and fire tore through their trailer at 22 Rycon Place early Sunday morning.

A local taxi driver and friend of the couple, said he was first on the scene.

" I heard over the radio at 8:00 a.m. Sunday morning that there was a fire at 22 Rycon Place," said John Dunn. "I came because I know Bill, a fellow taxi driver lived here."

Dunn said the trailer was "completely engulfed" by the time he arrived, shortly after 8:00 a.m.

He said he believed there were only two occupants inside the trailer at the time of the fire and that they are both safe. The distraught couple watched from the back of his cab as the Yellowknife Fire Department vainly tried to save their trailer from certain destruction.

He said the woman had to make a quick exit and was only wearing her pajamas when she escaped from the rapidly progressing fire.

As of 10:15 Sunday morning, the Yellowknife Fire Department said the fire was still in progress and would issue a press release at a later time. The cause of the fire was unknown at press time.

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