Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 07/05) - When Todd Brownrigg saw smoke coming out of 624 Williams Ave. Saturday at 12:30 p.m., he acted on instinct.

"I didn't think," said Brownrigg.

He was walking to his car from his girlfriend's apartment when he saw the smoke. He ran back and grabbed a fire extinguisher.

"I didn't know if there were people in there or not," he said.

Inside the four-plex apartment he found the couch covered in four-foot high flames.

Brownrigg doused what he could before the fire department arrived.

This was the third apartment fire in a week, and now the fire department is encouraging people to be careful with candles and cigarettes.

On Aug. 29, a woman was severely burned in an apartment at Anderson-Thompson Tower and a basement unit at Ciarra Manor was damaged. A candle is suspected as the cause of the Anderson-Thompson blaze and a cigarette is believed to have caused the fire on Saturday.

No cause has been determined for the Ciarra fire. The unidentified woman burned at Anderson-Thompson was reported in stable condition in an Edmonton hospital Tuesday.

The woman living in the Williams Ave. rental unit, who had escaped by herself, was treated by firefighters and taken to Stanton Territorial Hospital with minor burns to her arm. Her child was at a friend's house when the fire broke out.

Smoke and water damage is estimated at $20,000, said Chucker Dewar, deputy fire chief.

Dewar said the Brownrigg's actions stopped the flames on the surface of the couch, but couldn't have put out the entire fire because the flames go deep into the filling and is hard to put out.

Firefighters quickly got the blaze under control. The sprinkler system helped stop the fire from spreading to the second floor, Dewar said.

The other families in the Yellowknife Housing Authority four-plex were allowed back into their apartments after the building was checked with a thermal imaging sensor to insure the fire hadn't spread in the walls.

Repairs will include repainting and some drywall replacement, said Jim White, housing authority CEO. He expects the apartment should be ready for new tenants in a few weeks.