Quality Furniture burns
$800,000 blaze destroys downtown business

by P.J. Harston
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 27/97) - An early-morning fire that caused about $800,000 damage to a Franklin Avenue furniture store is being treated by the fire marshal and RCMP as "suspicious" in origin.

They are still investigating the fire's cause.

Residents of the 4600 block-area in downtown Yellowknife awoke yesterday morning to wailing sirens and billowing smoke.

"I looked out the window and saw the sky filled with thick, black smoke," said Chris Flannagan, sitting on the front steps of a building across from the fire.

Flannagan, who finished his shift at the Explorer Hotel at 2 a.m., was still awake in his nearby apartment at 3:30 when the fire broke out at Quality Furniture and Les's Second Hand Swap Shop at 4604 Franklin Avenue.

The 25-year-old building is right across the street from the Country Corner convenience store.

"We were here just as the first fire truck was pulling up. When we first got here, we saw flames coming out of the main window there beside the door," he said. He pointed to where a half-dozen firefighters were gathered.

Three kids who were there when fire broke out - Kayla, 11, Mark, 13, and Adolphus, 12 - said they were the first to spot the blaze and alert an adult.

"We saw the fire, but we didn't see anyone around," said Mark, who explained the three were just "hanging around downtown" at that time of the morning.

"We waited and waited and finally we went inside (Country Corner) and told the owner to call the fire department."

Twenty firefighters staffing a half-dozen fire vehicles answered the call.

Using axes, high-pressure hoses and an aerial ladder, they attacked the blaze through nearly every door, window and even the roof of the large building packed with new and used furniture.

Steve McKay, 16, and his buddy, Steve Banic, 19, watched from a picnic table outside the convenience store as firefighters pulled up to the store.

"We heard an alarm going for the longest time, but we didn't see anything," said McKay.

"Then all of the sudden flames started coming out -- we wondered why it was taking so long for police or someone to come and check out the alarm," he said.

"We said, 'holy shit, you'd better call the fire department' to the store owner and he said, 'I am, I am already,'" said McKay.

They said kids were walking right up to the building while flames shot out of a window near the front entrance.

"We told them to get lost -- I mean, what are these kids doing out at this time of the morning anyway?" said McKay.

"When the firefighters came, man, I have to hand it to them ... they went straight to the fire and stuck their head in and started hosing it down. Those guys are the best."

RCMP officers also attended the fire. They blocked Franklin Avenue to traffic shortly after firefighters were on the scene.

They later questioned several bystanders about what they saw just before flames broke out.

Les Rocher, who along with other members of the Rocher family owns the store, arrived at the scene about an hour after the fire began.

Visibly shaken, Rocher discussed the fire with an RCMP corporal. He could do little else while firefighters cut into the walls and roof of his furniture store and doused still-smoldering straw insulation that lined the building's walls.

The store has been at this location for about a year, when it moved from the old fire hall down the street a few blocks, a family friend said, shaking his head.