Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Published Monday, August 20, 2007

SANIKILUAQ - A home belonging to a Nunavut Power Corporation worker bruned down on Aug. 11 while he was away from the community.

No one was in the house at the time.

A firefighter tries to control the flames. - photo courtesy of Robert McLean

The RCMP was unable to release details of the blaze as the investigation is still ongoing. The senior adminstrative officer and fire chief were unavailable for comment.

The fire alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. that Saturday morning according to former SAO Robert McLean. There was a lot of smoke and flames coming out of the house by the time the fire department arrived.

"They did their best to control it, so it couldn't spread. They couldn't put it out, but they saved it from going to neighbours' houses," McLean said.

Peter Kattuk, Sanikiluaq's MLA, said he was sitting down to read in his comfortable chair when he heard the fire siren go off.

"I looked through the window and saw smoke. I thought the hamlet grass was on fire. It was coming from the direction of the hamlet garage."

Current homeowner David Ford, plant foreman with Nunavut Power Corporation, was away on vacation at the time of the fire and hadn't returned before Nunavut News/North's press deadline.

The dwelling formerly belonged to convicted pedophile Ed Horne, and is said to be a place where he abused many of his victims.

Horne, currently serving a 20-year sentence for sexually assaulting former students, worked in the community in the 1970s as a teacher and an adult educator.

"There are a lot of bad memories in that house," McLean said.

Horne was convicted on 20 counts of sexual assault in 2000 and still faces 15 additional charges. In 2002 the governments of Nunavut and the NWT paid $21.5 million to 82 men who accused Horne of abusing them.

The NWT government hired Horne in 1971 to work in the Belcher Islands. He taught in Eastern Arctic schools until 1986. In addition to working in Sanikiluaq, Horne taught in Cape Dorset, Grise Fiord, Kimmirut, and ended his career as a principal in Iqaluit.

McLean said that the entire fire squad responded to the call. It was the department's first big test after a training session that took place in the first week of June. A new crop of volunteer firefighters had been recruited at that time.

The department worked until noon on Saturday to control the fire, but couldn't save it.

"It was completely gutted," McLean said.