Yellowknife (Mar 13/06) - The City of Yellowknife and its top two fire hall commanders are facing charges in the deaths of two firefighters battling a shed fire at the Home Building Centre last year.

The NWT Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) announced charges have been laid Friday against fire chief Mick Beauchamp, deputy fire chief Darcy Hernblad and the city with two counts each under the NWT Safety Act.

The first charge is failing to take "reasonable precautions" and adopt "reasonable techniques and procedures to ensure the health and safety" of Yellowknife Fire Department employees.

The second charge is failing to ensure firefighters received adequate instructions to do their jobs. Each charge has a maximum penalty of $500,000, one year in prison or both.

Firefighters Cyril Fyfe and Kevin Olson died after the roof of a shed collapsed on them, March 17, 2005. Their deaths launched investigations by the WCB, the NWT fire marshal, and the NWT chief coroner, but few of their findings have been made public.

Fire marshal Bernie Van Tighem released the cause of the fire -- an overworked electric heater -- but he said he has been asked by the WCB to release nothing more while charges were pending.

Spokesperson Tanya Fraser said the WCB has completed its report, but will not release the document now that charges have been filed.

She said City Hall and the two fire hall officials will be given copies of the report today to comply with legal disclosure rules.

With many City Hall officials away or attending the Arctic Winter Games in Alaska, public works director Greg Kehoe was left to answer questions by the media.

He said neither them nor Beauchamp and Hernblad have been served with any charges yet, even though WCB press release Friday said they had been laid. Kehoe said the fire chief and his deputy will remain on the job. He also insisted residents can be assured that the fire department is functioning fine. "The city of Yellowknife will continue to operate emergency services in its normal capacity," said Kehoe.

He added that the city is still working to comply with the 12 safety orders issued by the WCB late last month.

Fraser later corrected the WCB press release, saying that charges have been "filed" in court, although no one will be formally charged until today.

She said the WCB discussed the charges with the city Thursday, and briefed the victims' families Friday.

Craig Halifax, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters local 2890, said staff planned to meet Friday afternoon. He expected there would be some discussion on the "prudence of the fire chief and the deputy fire chief continuing being our command structure."

Firefighters are anxious to see what the report has to say, he said.

"Eventually, we'll see the report," said Halifax. "Obviously, there's going to be some pretty strong information there."

Beauchamp and Hernblad could not be reached for comment.

Reached in Alaska, Mayor Gordon Van Tighem said City Hall is in the process of responding to WCB's charges. Council will address the issue at its next meeting.

There is the potential that interim replacements will be found for fire chief Beauchamp and assistant fire chief Hernblad while the charges are sorted out and dealt with, the mayor said. "The (city) administration through the senior administrative officer went through looking at the potential of dealing with the continued management of the fire department. One of the options is that there is the potential to remove them," he said.

"That may have been determined already (over the weekend)."