Malcolm Gorrill & Catherine Gillis
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 15/00) - A fire caused about $100,000 damage to a double wide trailer at 119 Knutsen Avenue Saturday.

The Yellowknife Fire Department received a call at 10:44 a.m. Heavy smoke and fire was showing from the residence when crews arrived.

A total of 23 firefighters and two command units responded.

Leslie Suchlandt and her two children (ages 14 months and three years) were at home when the smoke detector went off.

"When I heard the smoke detector, I got up and walked down the hallway," Suchlandt said.

"As I made my way through the hallway, I could feel the temperature rise in the house. I opened the door to my bedroom and there was a fire in there," she said.

"I grabbed both of my children and ran out of the house with just my slippers on, but I had to run back into the house because my baby needed a blanket."

Suchlandt, who is expecting her third child in May, went to a neighbour's house to call for help.

Suchlandt's husband, Kevin Stannard, was not home at the time. The trailer is owned by Sheila Baisy of Yellowknife.

Deputy fire chief Mike Lowing said heat and smoke caused about $50,000 damage to the Suchlandts' personal belongings.

"The vast majority of all their belongings were either destroyed by fire or severely damaged," Lowing said.

"They didn't have any insurance at this particular point. We kept the fire confined to her bedroom," he said.

"The heat and smoke went through the rest of the house and baked everything."

Two cats perished in the fire, and one firefighter was treated for minor burns and then released from Stanton Regional Hospital.

The cause of the fire has been ruled accidental.

"The exact cause we don't know because of the severe fire damage in the back, but it is an accidental fire," Lowing said.

The fire remains under investigation. The Grapevine Restaurant has started collecting donations for the family.