Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (Jun 03/98) - A Rankin Inlet family is homeless after a fire gutted their house Friday night.

Matthew Kurok and six members of his family all got out of the house and escaped injury after the fire started in the bedroom of Housing Association house 149 around 8:30 p.m.

After discovering smoke coming out of the bedroom, Kurok left the house with his wife, Perpuetue, and their daughters, Linda, 25, Christine, 18, Jovette, 11, and their grandsons, Matthew John, 13, and Thomas Duncan, 9.

No one had noticed Duncan playing with a lighter in the bedroom until it was too late.

Kurok's daughter, Irene Duncan, called the fire department after her sister, Linda, ran to her house to tell her of the fire. She said it was her special-needs son that set the fire.

"Apparently Thomas had started the fire playing with a lighter in the room," Duncan said.

Duncan is also concerned about the length of time it took to get through to the fire department. "The line was busy," she said. "It took them 10 or 15 minutes to get here. I kept calling for 10 minutes. I was frustrated."

Standing outside, watching the smoke pour out of the windows, she said he was worried the firefighters wouldn't get to the house before it burned to the ground.

Fire chief Vince Lang, who was off on holiday, said he became aware of the fire only after he'd heard the sirens. He also said he would be looking into the fact that the line was busy. Once he finds out why, he said he will make further comment.

Damage is estimated to run as high as $75,000, according to Rankin Inlet Housing Association manager Darrin Nichol.

"Structurally it looks OK, and we will retrofit it and use it again," he said. "But they won't be moving in." Kurok and his family are staying at the Siniktarvik Hotel until another Housing Association house becomes available.