Brent Reaney
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 08/05) - RCMP are investigating a fire which burned a two-foot hole in the floor of a downtown Yellowknife apartment, and may have caused up to $45,000 in damage.

The fire was called in around 8:30 a.m. at Ravenscourt apartments, June 3.

The building is currently being converted into condominiums.

Heat from the fire set off the apartment's ceiling sprinkler, which poured water into the unit directly below, and eventually into two other units.

"It'd be like taking a garden hose on full spray and hanging it up on the ceiling," said deputy fire chief Darcy Hernblad of the strength of a sprinkler.

With the apartment recently vacated, Ravenscourt property manager Leslie Cole says there are no plans to rent the unit prior to selling it.

"To be honest, I don't know how exactly we're going to do it," she said of the plans to repair the damage.

An insurance company has not been called to estimate the damage, Cole said. The fire department's $45,000 damage estimate is the department's best guess, Hernblad said.

With spots of water all over his clothes, the man who lives in the apartment below the fire would not give an interview.

About a dozen people waited outside the building while the whir of a small generator pumped water up the stairs to fight the fire. The Mounted Police investigation into the cause of the blaze was expected to conclude Tuesday.

"No suspects have been located, and therefore no charges have been laid," said Const. Damon Werrell, spokesperson for the RCMP.

The building is owned by the same numbered company in Edmonton which owns Yellowknife Apartments.

Fire damage was contained to the fourth floor unit, Hernblad said, but water damage occurred on all four floors. Nobody was injured.