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House destroyed in Gwich'in Road blaze
Frozen fire hydrant causes five minutes delay
in getting water source for firefightersKatherine Hudson Northern News Services Published Thursday, February 2, 2012
Fire Chief Jim Sawkins said the call came in around 2:10 p.m. and the RCMP and Inuvik Fire Department were met at the scene with a frozen fire hydrant. The -38 C temperatures made for cold work, and the second pumper truck on scene could not hook up to the frozen hydrant. "What happened yesterday was the hydrant ... was frozen, and we couldn't get any water out of it. So, at that point, I called for my tanker and for some other water supply tankers ... and basically they arrived on scene – but before we could utilize them, we made a second connection to another hydrant down the road. There was maybe a five-minute mark we were without water," said Sawkins. "This is unique to the North, obviously." The first pumper on the scene went through its 500 gallons of water as the second pumper attempted to attach to the hydrant. Sawkins said when the department arrived at the scene, the fire was already in the crawl space and smoke was coming out the eves. He said this is due to "balloon construction" which allows fire and smoke to vent itself through the walls to the top of the house. Colin Cunningham, owner of the residence, took a minute to lean against a truck outside his burning house, after attempting to salvage one of his snowmobiles from the yard of his property. He said the fire started when he was "thawing out a pipe." "It would help if the fire department had water ... The fire hydrants are all frozen," said Cunningham. Cunningham's friend Mel Jacob said the pair had just recently painted rooms in the house. The residence was made up of a house to the left and an apartment on the right. "We're trying to get some of the stuff out. I was here at the beginning. The bottom of the house started on fire. The whole place is gone," said Jacob. A handful of youth crowded around the outside of the property, after following the smoke which billowed into the air and could be seen from all areas of town. "It's the biggest fire. It's so crazy. I can feel the warmth from right here," said Grade 7 student Wallace Goose as he stood about 20 metres away from the burning house. Sawkins said the scene was cleared by about 7:30 p.m. He said the fire department returned to the scene at 1 a.m. Wednesday to ensure any hot spots were out. "Everything collapses on to itself and you get void spaces and places where fire hides itself," he explained. The house and apartment are ruined and wind blew the fire toward a neighbouring house, damaging the siding and cracking a window. "Other than that, we were able to keep the fire from next door, which was very closely situated," said Sawkins. He said being the new fire chief in Inuvik, he couldn't have been more proud of how the 30 firefightrers on scene carried out the effort.
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