Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Sep 13/99) - Were it not for the quick response of the Iqaluit Fire Department, two children -- both under the age of 12 -- would have wreaked havoc in the lives of 343 of their peers at Nakasuk school.

That's according to fire Chief Neville Wheaton.

Called out at 12:30 p.m. last Saturday afternoon, Sept. 4, to respond to a fire at the Iqaluit-based school, Wheaton explained that had firefighters not managed to keep the flames confined to the wooden encasement where the fire originated, it would have spelled disaster for the community.

"Another three to five minutes and it would have been a lot worse that it is now," said Wheaton.

But over a two-hour period, the team of 19 firefighters were able to fully extinguish the flames and prevent the fire from burning through the school's fibreglass panelling and reaching the crawl space.

"The crawl space basically rings the building so it would have been almost impossible to control that. But we were quick enough to get it out before it got inside the building."

Juvenile fire setters

While the incident will go down as a close call, Wheaton said it once again raised the serious issue of the lack of programs that deal with children who set fires.

Saturday's blaze was started by two children young enough to evade the reaches of the Young Offender's Act and both of them were previously known to the fire department and the RCMP for similar crimes.

Wheaton said that at least when the children were old enough to be charged, the justice system had the clout to get them treatment if treatment was required.

But due to a lack of organization, available staff and a possible shortage of funds, fire setters under the age of 12 were falling through the cracks.

"Juvenile fire setting is one of our major problems around here and we can't seem to do anything about it. There's programs called Juvenile Fire Setters Intervention Programs and we started them, but it needs everybody's input -- social services, law enforcement, fire department and the families. For whatever reason, it's not getting off the ground," said Wheaton, who further added that he hoped to raise the issue during Fire Prevention Week Oct. 3-9.

Wheaton also expressed concern that the objects the fire setters were targeting were increasing in size -- an observation that he admitted worries him.

"Some of the kids involved, the progression of the fire setting is right out of the book. The progression from garbage cans to personal property to abandoned shacks to institutions. That concerns me."

Second fire

Just 11 hours after the fire department had extinguished the first blaze, they were called out to respond to a second incident.

At 1:24 a.m., Wheaton said there was a report of a possible vehicle fire. While he was in the process of responding, a second report came in clarifying that a truck and a shed were on fire in the parking lot of White Row, a housing complex in Iqaluit.

Firefighters were able to put out the flames in 45 minutes and due to the report of witnesses, a man has been charged with two counts of arson.

"We've got two witnesses that saw what happened. (He) has been charged with two counts of arson on the vehicle and the property," said Const. Kevin Craig.

The man will appear in Nunavut's Court of Justice on Oct. 18 at 9:30 a.m.