Inuvik (Feb 20/04) - The Inuvik Fire Department was busy earlier this week fighting two fires.

At 9:45 a.m. on Saturday, the department was summoned to a blaze under the concrete pad of the boiler shack at the Mack Travel building.

Though an investigation into the cause of the fire is not complete, Cpt. Julie Miller suspects the conduction of heat through the concrete ignited the wooden beams underneath the boiler room.

"We had a difficult time extinguishing it because the fire was hard to access," she said.

Miller says 10 volunteer firefighters responded to the call and remained on scene until 5:30 p.m. that afternoon.

Not two days later, a similar fire, this time inside the boiler room servicing Parkview Apartments, put Inuvik's fire crew back into action.

The fire department received the call at approximately 5 a.m. and sent two pumper trucks to the scene to ensure flames from the boiler room -- 12 feet from the apartment complex -- would not set the residences ablaze.

Tenants were evacuated shortly after firefighters arrived at the scene.

While witnesses who telephoned the department said the fire erupted quickly, the firefighters were able to bring it under control "pretty quickly," said Miller.

Fire crews remained on the scene until five that evening.

Unlike the Mack Travel Building, where the boiler remained unaffected by the blaze, Parkview Apartments was not as lucky.

As of Tuesday afternoon, tenants were without heat and were being housed at the Mackenzie Hotel at Buena Vista Properties' expense.

Although Buena Vista was under no legal obligation to ensure tenants had alternative lodgings, the company felt that under the circumstances it was the least that could be done, said building manager Dave Tyler.

"The important thing was nobody was hurt and no possessions were lost in the fire," he said.

On Tuesday, Tyler said the heat could be back on at the Parkview Apartments as early as Wednesday morning.

Foul play was not suspected in either of the fires.