Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 02/03) - It wasn't a happy new year for one cabin owner on the Ingraham Trail this week.

The Yellowknife Fire Department was called out to a fire about 35 kilometres outside of Yellowknife around 10:45 a.m. Monday.

By the time they arrived, the two-storey structure had burned all the way down to the foundation.

Firefighter Mike Dunsmore, who was on scene along with several other firefighters, said there was little the department could do to save the cabin, located on a lot with several other cottages overlooking Prelude Lake a few kilometres past the Prelude Lake East access road.

It took firefighters 25 minutes to get to the neighbourhood.

Firefighters then had to climb a steep hill with hoses to reach the fire.

A fire engine supplied water to firefighters at the scene, but with only a limited capacity to hold water the effort was put on hold after a few minutes while the crew switched over to a line from a water tanker also on scene.

"It's kind of anti-climactic for us," said Dunsmore. "Obviously, it's a total loss."

The cabin's owner, Butch Bisaro, estimated the damage to be in excess of $100,000. Besides the cabin, many cherished family items were also lost in the blaze, including those belonging to his daughter.

"That hurts," said Bisaro. "The upside is no one was there."

Bisaro said he has no idea how the fire might have started.

His family spent the weekend in the cabin, returning to Yellowknife, Sunday afternoon. Nothing was amiss when he returned Monday morning to retrieve a truck that was parked there, but shortly upon returning to town he was told his cabin was on fire.

"I came back to town and they said, 'Go back out to your cabin,' and I said, 'Why?' They said there was a fire, and I said, 'Wrong cabin,'" said Bisaro.

At press time, deputy fire chief Clem St. Croix said the cause of the blaze remains a mystery, although signs appear to indicate the fire may have started in the kitchen area.

"It's still under investigation," said St. Croix. "We couldn't determine exactly where it started. All we could determine was that it looked like it started on the kitchen side of the property."