Yellowknife (Aug 20/03) - Although something that should be considered every-day, fire safety will come to the forefront from Oct. 5 to 11.

That is Fire Prevention Week in Canada and plans are already in place to ensure the Kivalliq gets a healthy dose of fire safety.

Packages are currently being put together by the Fire Marshal's office.

The material contains a variety of useful fire safety tips and will be distributed to each fire station in Nunavut.

Tim Hinds, deputy fire marshal, said aside from the packages the departments will also be going into the schools to provide some fire safety instruction.

For the firefighters themselves there will be a firefighter training course held in Rankin Inlet tentatively set for Oct. 3-8.

Hinds expects there to be a representative from each of the 27 Nunavut communities at the training session.

As well, staff from the fire marshal's office will also attend.

What Hinds is most excited about this year is the possibility of holding a Nunavut firefighter competition in conjunction with the training.

Whether that will be a reality will depend on how much time they have in between training.

"We're not going to cut back on training time and we're going to need about half a day," said Hinds.

Competitions on a smaller level have been held in the past, but this will be the first one that will incorporate national rules.

"We got a set of rules from the Manitoba Association of Aboriginal Firefighters," said Hinds.

It's hoped that by using those rules and giving Nunavut fire fighters a basis for training, Nunavut can compete in future national competitions.

"It'll be the first time we do it on an organized level, instead of just for fun," said Hinds.

As far as public education goes, Hinds said there are a few issues that are prevalent in Nunavut.

The first is the storage of accelerants such as gasoline.

"People tend to store it near exits. Since a lot of people only have one exit, that can lead to a dangerous situation," said Hinds.

Another problem has been candles and stoves that have been left unattended, resulting in fire.

"Pots that have boiled dry have created problems in the recent past," noted Hinds.

As well there have been issues caused by people not properly maintaining their smoke detectors or unplugging them.

Finally, he said a pet peeve of his is business exits that are not cleared of debris, such as snow.

"If people notice that they should complain because it's an issue of their own safety.

"If they are not cleared in an emergency it can create difficulty leading to injury or death," said Hinds."