SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The cost of battling a 12-hour fire at the Yellowknife landfill over the weekend isn't known yet, but it's bound to be at least $100,000, said Carl Bird, director of corporate services.

Firefighters battle the blaze that erupted in the Yellowknife landfill salvage yard during the early stages of the fire on Saturday. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

"The bills haven't started coming in for it, but certainly it was a costly fire to fight," acting mayor Mark Heyck said at a city committee meeting on Tuesday.

Bird added, "We're starting to get some calls in but nothing in detail. As you can imagine there were a lot of resources employed."

Those resources included 24 firefighters, several fire department vehicles, helicopters and a water bomber plane, as well as a number of contractors.

Following speculation that the dump fire, which started Saturday, was caused by a salvager who was smoking, self-proclaimed "defender of the dump" Walt Humphries said it is time to make Yellowknife's landfill a smoke-free zone.

"Why not just make it a no-smoking area? All you'd have to do is put a few signs up at the gate," he said. "Really, people shouldn't be able to smoke at the dump."

According to Humphries' recollection, the last blaze at the dump in 2005 was blamed on salvagers too, and he wants to be sure smoking is banned before any moves to ban salvaging are considered.

He added that dumps are by nature highly flammable, with untold amounts of chemicals and highly volatile materials fermenting, so it makes sense to remove smoking from the equation.

Heyck expressed surprised that the dump is not already a smoke-fee zone.

"I would have thought or hoped that it already was a no-smoking zone. I'd have to look into it," Heyck said.

Bird said a smoking ban in the dump was something that "certainly might be considered."

He said little insight has been turned up by the investigation, only determining that the fire likely started in the salvaging yard.

"It will be difficult to determine the cause because we've moved a whole bunch of material around and covered stuff up," he said. "We don't know how long it will take to determine a cause, or if we're even able to."

Salvaging is suspended at the dump due to the blaze, probably for a month to six weeks, according to Bird.

Air quality reports from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources could not be obtained. However, following Tuesday's committee briefing on the fire, Heyck said although there was no mention of serious air quality issues, residents had to be advised to take precautions such as closing their windows and doors while the fire's dark, acrid smoke loomed over the city.