Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Oct 05/01) - A salvage operation went awry Sunday afternoon at the town dump. A man accidentally set two abandoned vehicles on fire while trying to cut the hitch off of one of them.

Firefighters put out a blaze involving a couple of stacked abandoned vehicles at the town dump on Sunday afternoon. The cause was accidental. - Malcolm Gorrill/NNSL photo

"Sparks from the cutting torch got onto the tires below and started the vehicles on fire," Inuvik fire Chief Al German said.

German said the man had permission to cut off the hitch, and no charges are expected.

Three pumper trucks responded to the fire. The call was made around 2:15 p.m.

The fire could have been worse. Shortly after it began Tony Bernhardt used a Bobcat to push the vehicles several feet so that they weren't near anything else.

Albert Bernhardt is the owner of A.B. Salvage, which manages the dump on behalf of the town. He said things could have been much worse if this had happened six months ago, before he began separating some items.

"That could have been a major fire," Bernhardt said.

"Everything was all together. Everything was in the dump, all that stuff wasn't separated or anything."

For example, there is now one large pile of tires, which are set apart from everything else to reduce the chance of them catching fire.

Bernhardt said the last fire at the dump occurred a few years ago, lasted a week and cost about $90,000 to put out.

Barbara Armstrong, recycling co-ordinator for the Inuvik Recycling Society, explained that the vehicles which caught fire were in amongst several vehicles which were brought in earlier this year during free dumping week. She said some of these vehicles were dumped there without meeting requirements, and they're being kept separate until they are dealt with.

"The tires are supposed to be off of the rims," Armstrong explained.

"There's not supposed to be any fluids in them at all, including gas or gas tanks."

German returns

German, director for the NWT Fire Chiefs Association, returned this week from the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs national conference in London, Ont.

He said it was a good conference, with more than 1,000 delegates there. On the downside, German said he noticed that the price of an average tanker truck has -- doubled -- going up from $250,000 a year ago to $500,000 this year.

A tribute was held for Canadian firefighters who have died in the line of duty over the past year, and a special tribute was held for the firefighters who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist actions in New York.

Open house

Fire Prevention Week takes place Oct. 7-13. An open house will take place the afternoon of Oct. 13, with rides and hotdogs to be offered if weather permits.

German said department members are also willing to help people with their escape plans, and test detectors, as well as do other things to make homes safer from fire.