Coppermine (Sep 02/02) - Robert Ayalik was outside his house Friday evening when a neighbour came by with startling news: a house down the street was spewing smoke.

Ayalik walked over to see what was happening. Smoke was coming out of Roy Havioyak's house. Sitting on the steps to the house was Havioyak's wife, Alice Kokak, covered in soot and grime.

She was rocking back and forth, saying, "Roy's in there, Roy's in there."

Flames began to erupt from the front porch of the house.

Knowing Havioyak's chances of surviving for long inside the house were slim, Ayalik entered through a side door where it wasn't so smoky.

He called out and heard a weak voice calling back from the kitchen.

"I'm here," said Havioyak.

Ayalik took a deep breath and began crawling through the black clouds. Unable to see more than a few inches, he bumped into household items as he went through the burning home.

By chance he stumbled upon Havioyak and tried to drag him from the kitchen while still crawling, but couldn't muster the power to move him far.

Out of oxygen, Ayalik put his nose to the floor and inhaled a chestful of smoky air. Then he stood up and dragged Havioyak, who was now unconscious. He wasn't certain he could find the way out.

"Given that there was so much smoke and everything, I had my eyes closed," said Ayalik. "I was bumping into the walls. That was scary. Then I found my way out to the entrance that I had entered through."

Teetering on the edge of consciousness himself, Ayalik dropped Havioyak on the ground outside.

Ayalik's mother Alice, who had also arrived at the scene, noticed that Havioyak had stopped breathing, and began pumping his chest.

Fearful that he might die under her watch, she began praying in a loud voice.

"God, help us! Help us right now! Help us immediately!" she yelled in Innuinaqtun.

In the meantime, Robert Ayalik had regained his senses enough to begin mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Soon after, Havioyak began breathing again. By this time - around 6:45 p.m. - fire crews had begun arriving with two pumpers and two water trucks, each carrying about 2,000 gallons of water. In total, about 20 men helped work on the fire, which was under control within about 15 minutes.

Havioyak was taken to the health centre for treatment of smoke inhalation. Ayalik took a shower to clean off the soot, then joined Havioyak at the health centre.

"They were lucky to save the house," said Edward Dupont, the fire chief. "The fire was very intense when we got there."

Havioyak is reported to be in good condition now. Ayalik said he doesn't feel like a hero for saving his neighbour.

"I'm humbled that I was able to be used this way to pull out Roy," he said. "And I'm sure other people would have done the same thing if I wasn't there."

According to Dupont, Havioyak had been in the front porch earlier that evening, drinking and heating knives on a hot plate. But the hot plate was left unattended, and the resulting blaze caused about $65,000 in damage to the house.

-with files from Margaret McKay