Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 26/00) -A fire caught the attention of passers-by Monday evening when several small explosions destroyed a van outside the Bowling Green building.

"They were shampooing carpets inside (the building) when a worker came out to check something and noticed a fire inside the van," said Yellowknife Fire Department Lieut. Darcy Hernblad.

A four-man duty crew was called to the scene of this fire Tuesday afternoon after a kerosene-operated steam cleaner started a fire in van owned by Commercial Carpet Cleaning outside the Bowling Green building - Dawn Ostrem/NNSL photo

"It was going pretty good and didn't take long to build up momentum."

No one was hurt in the blaze and as of Monday evening the fire department wasn't aware of any other damage to surrounding vehicles. The van was parked in the parking lot on the north-east side of the building.

"The kerosene-operated steam cleaner used might have something to do with why it got going so quickly," Hernblad said. "There were a couple of explosions but we don't know what it was. An investigation is ongoing," Hernblad said.

"When we got there there were flames coming out everywhere. But we had it extinguished within a few minutes."

The fire department used a four-man duty crew at the scene and two municipal enforcement officers were also directing traffic around the blocked-off street.

"I was just here at the traffic stop, heard a big boom and looked over," said municipal enforcement officer Doug Norrad at the scene. "I was in the right place at the right time."

Lynn Stirling, a psychologist whose office is located on the second floor of the Bowling Green building, also saw the situation first-hand.

"I saw a lot of smoke coming up so I called the fire department but someone else had already called," she said. "I wasn't sure what it was but I was quite surprised that it was a vehicle on fire."