SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The fire that left five Sissons Court families homeless Wednesday night was deliberately set, according to fire marshal Steve Moss.

However, considering the ages of those who set the fire Moss is hesitant to use the word arson.

"It's not so much an arson as a child fire-setting," he said. Moss added that he can't confirm the ages of the children - two are known to be involved, with possibly one other suspected - but said that it's likely they are under 10.

Moss said the plan is to interview the children and their parents and hopefully get them involved with the office's juvenile firesetter intervention program.

"It's not uncommon for kids that age to have some interest in fire," he said.

"The answers that they give and things that they say will provide us with the path that we will be taking," he added.

While the exact cause of the blaze was still under investigation at press time, Moss said he believes it started on a mattress. Currently, he is trying to determine the location of the mattress when it caught fire.

The fire, which started in a vacant unit at 2037 Sissons Court just before 9 p.m., extended to the units on either side. According to the Yellowknife fire department, three out of the six units in the row housing received heat and smoke damage, with the other three sustaining only light smoke damage.

"I looked out the window and saw smoke coming across the back of the deck," said Alisen Maracle, who occupied the unit at 2038 Sissons, next to the vacant unit.

Maracle, a single mother of four, had just put her young son to bed when she heard someone knocking on the door. She and her children made it out - but just in time.

"I just had time to run back in and grab the car seats and then that was it," she said. "Everything is gone."

Maracle's family and four others were left homeless after the fire.

The Yellowknife Housing Authority, which owns the property, is currently paying for the families to stay in suites at a local hotel and will continue to do so until it can place them in other properties in its portfolio, said CEO Jim White.

"I toured (the units) this morning ... three of them are completely gutted, in my view," said White.

"All of the services run through together, " he added. "So right now we've lost six units for at least a very indeterminate lengthy time, because there's no power or water to those units and they're not usable."

Already there is a Facebook group called, "Please help the victims of the Sissons Court Fire." It's run by Shari Wynne, who also rallied to aid victims of the Bison Estates fire last March.

"Facebook is a great way to spread the word," she said.

Wynne will be making updates on where and how the public can make donations, once she gets the necessary information.

"I wanted to start with at least spreading the word about it and getting people aware and interested in making donations," she said.

Total damage to the housing is estimated at $700,000 to the structure and $75,000 to the contents.

Fire crews - a total of three chief officers and 20 firefighters - were on scene for four and a half hours extinguishing the fire and preventing its spread.

Two firefighters sustained minor injuries.