Rankin Inlet (July 10/06) - The Rankin Inlet fire department was kept busy recently with two fires.

Firefighters were called to the dump on June 29 to contain a fire there, which covered parts of the hamlet with a thick, foul-smelling cloud of smoke.

All seven available members of Rankin’s volunteer fire department spent three hours wading across mountains of trash to corral the blaze.

“It is not very pleasant,” said fire chief Rick Penner. “But at least it’s the dump and not somebody’s house.”

Penner is not sure what sparked the blaze, which began around 4:10 p.m., but with a wide array of chemicals and flammable materials in the landfill, spontaneous combustion remains one possibility, he said.

Some of the flames were buried under four-metre tall piles of trash, which Penner said made them difficult to reach.

A hamlet bulldozer spent about two-and-a-half hours moving the garbage heaps around while fire fighters doused flare-ups.

The dump, which is less than two kilometres from downtown Rankin, catches fire about once a year, Penner said.

The hamlet is building a new landfill outside town and hopes to have it operational by September, senior administrative officer John Hodgson said.

On June 24, firefighters had been on the tundra, about 10 kilometres from Rankin, to fight a blaze that spread across 250 metres.

Fire officials believe it was sparked by an out of control hot-dog cookout.

A pack of weiners was still on top of a small, stone hearth when the smoke, visible from Rankin, finally cleared.

“It could have been much worse if there had been muskeg (under the tundra surface),” said assistant fire marshal Allan Smith.

“I’ve seen a muskeg fire in British Columbia that burned for a year.”

The blaze began sometime around 5 p.m. at a popular campsite overlooking the Meliadine River, a 15 minute drive from Rankin.

Five firefighters and one pumper truck were eventually able to corral the blaze as curious residents watched from a few hundred metres away.

With stronger winds, the fire could have been more devastating, Smith said.

Nearby campers spotted the blaze and called the fire department.

The hotdog cookers apparently left the site and drove back to Rankin to notify officials, Smith said.