Adam Johnson
Northern News Services
Friday, July 20, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Adam Johnson/NNSL photoThirty Old Town residents descended on city hall Tuesday, looking for answers about fire safety in areas without hydrants.

Yellowknife Fire Chief Reid Douglas addresses the audience at the special town hall meeting at City Hall Tuesday. The meeting drew numerous concerns from citizens about the state of firefighting on Latham Island, and other areas without hydrants in Yellowknife. - Adam Johnson/NNSL photo

"It could have been a lot worse," was how Latham Island resident Mary Vane described the June fire that destroyed her neighbor's home at 87 Morrison Drive last month.

She was instrumental in putting together the special town hall meeting, prompted in part by witnessing water shortages at the scene.

"If there had been a 20 mile-an-hour wind that night, it could have been much worse than it actually was," she said.

Yellowknife Fire Chief Reid Douglas was at the helm of the meeting, explaining what happened during the blaze. He said a combination of a tough fire, traffic snares and bad timing led to several problems that Saturday night in June. Traffic delays held up tanker trucks, causing firefighters to be without water for extended periods of time.

"We'd never dealt with anything like this before," he said.

Douglas was joined by director of public safety Dennis Marchiori, acting director of public works Dennis Kafalas and other fire division staff. Four city councillors -- Shelagh Montgomery, David Wind, Paul Falvo and David McCann -- were also in attendance.

Throughout the two-hour meeting, Douglas took questions from the audience.

"There should have been a strategy (for dealing with traffic) ahead of time, don't you think?" Vane asked.

"It's hard to move traffic once it's already there," Marchiori responded. He said the thick smoke the fire created drew crowds before crews arrived, even with a nine minute arrival time when the call went out.

"Nine minutes was miraculous as far as I was concerned," Douglas said, considering crews were staffing ambulances at Stanton hospital at the time.

However, he said the fire division has developed a plan with Yellowknife RCMP and the Municipal Enforcement Division to close down traffic on Latham as soon as a call goes out.

Other questions focused on finding alternative sources of water, either from the lake or from surface lines. Douglas and Kafalas disagreed with the idea, citing the potential to damage equipment with silty lake water and said there's insufficient pressure to fight fires.

"When you have no water, any quantity of water is better than none, isn't it?" Vane asked, adding that the water could be used to simply fill tanks, not fight fires directly.

"I guess that's possible," Douglas responded.

He said his department does not have the appropriate adapters to draw from surface lines.

Another factor working against the department, he said, was a new fire truck that is under repair. The truck is fitted with a foam system that drastically cuts back on water usage, but was on backup due to leaky seals.

"Next time, the foam pump will be there," Douglas said.

He said the department is also in talks to purchase a new 2,500 tank to supply its fire truck. The current tank only holds 1,500 gallons, requiring the 2,500 gallon tanker trucks to fill the pumper more than once before moving on to get more water.

"That will improve our turnaround time," the fire chief said.

Former city councillor and Ragged Ass Road resident Mike Byrne said the fire division should hold drills in Old Town to demonstrate what they've learned from this incident, at the firefighting and traffic control level. He even suggested the first drill be held without warning.

"Maybe on the second one, we'll bring the hamburgers," he said with a chuckle.

While many citizens were sharply critical of the fire division's response, others simply wanted to know what they could do to prevent another situation

"What can we do to help?" asked Allice Legal, who lives on Back Bay.

She asked that members of the fire department visit homes in the area to discuss traffic suppression techniques and early warning systems in person.

While attendees were open to future meetings, Douglas suggested they wait until the fall, when he has spoken with the National Research Council in Ottawa about new fire prevention techniques.

One of these is a foam-based sprinkler system that he feels is ideal for northern homes where water is in short supply.

Afterwards, Vane said she was pleased with the meeting, and felt her concerns would be addressed.

"The fire chief listened very carefully," she said.

Douglas said he was pleased to see citizens take interest in fire safety, and understood their concerns.

"I'm living on a non-water system," he said, paraphrasing their questions. "How is the fire department going to take care of me?"

Damage from the Morrison Drive fire is estimated at $1 million. An earlier fire that day Harriett's Lane caused an estimated $350,000 in damage.