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IQALUIT
Darlene Rose was woken early Sunday morning by her neighbour banging on her apartment door, screaming "Fire! Get out!"

An early morning fire Aug. 7 caused an estimated $180,000 worth of damage to an Iqaluit apartment. The Iqaluit fire department was able to prevent the fire in unit B from spreading to the other three units at building 2017. The resident at the end of the building had to have her door replaced after her neighbour damaged it trying to alert her to the fire. - Terrence McEachern/NNSL photo

"We got quite the scare," said Rose, who lives in one of four connected apartment units at building 2017 in Iqaluit.

"That was a bit too close for comfort," she said.

After her neighbour alerted her of the fire, she said she looked out and could see smoke coming from the apartment two units down and her neighbour running up and down the deck in front of the building banging on the doors.

Shortly after, the fire department and other agencies arrived at the scene with their overhead lights flashing.

Rose said she was surprised with how quickly the fire department arrived, and commends them for preventing the fire from spreading to any other units in the apartment complex, located just after the Iqaluit Lane turnoff by the airport perimeter.

Blaine Wiggins, deputy fire chief in Iqaluit, said it took the fire department about four minutes to arrive after receiving the call at 4:25 a.m. on Aug. 7.

Nine firefighters were deployed to the scene. It took about 15 minutes to put out the fire and another three hours to thoroughly check behind the drywall and other areas for hot spots, said Wiggins. He added the fire department has now closed the file on the incident and passed on its assessment to the fire marshal.

The fire caused $30,000 in damage to the contents inside the unit and another $150,000 in structural damage to the building, said Wiggins.

The occupants, a couple, as well as several cats, were evacuated safely. No one was injured in the fire, he said.

Rose has to have her door replaced because of the damage caused when her neighbour banged on it trying to warn her of the fire. Besides that, the only other damage to her unit was the odour of smoke.

At press time, the cause of the fire hadn't been released although an Aug. 8 RCMP press release said foul play wasn't suspected.

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