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IQALUIT
Elisapee Itulu of Kimmirut and her neighbours could only watch as a Feb. 26 fire destroyed 22 Creekside Village homes in Iqaluit, leaving 85 people temporarily homeless and two missing and believed dead.

Lena Leah Atagooyuk, 9, and Kim Michael, 12, watch as firefighters put water on the remains of the 300-block of homes in Iqaluit after a Feb. 26 fire. Michael said her cousin died in the fire. - Casey Lessard/NNSL photo

"When I went out, I saw big flames coming out at once," Itulu, 55, said. A metalworking student at Nunavut Arctic College, she lived with her adopted son and two sisters in Unit 321, several units down from 307, where the fire started.

"We didn't even have a chance to try to save the people inside. There was no way in. We were just stuck there staring."

Their first warning of the fire came while she and her son, 14, were in their pyjamas, watching a movie late Sunday evening.

"My boy heard something from outdoors - a bell," she recalled, "and he told me, 'Hey! We have to go out right away! There's a fire in one of the apartments out here.'"

Her son called emergency services, and she put on her parka to face the bracing cold, which felt like -50 C with 60 km/h wind gusts.

Also hearing bells in Unit 318, Inuit Studies student Eyuka Temela, 35, called her sister Nala in Unit 317 to see what she was cooking.

"She said, 'I'm not cooking, it's the fire alarm,'" Temela remembered. Looking outside, she saw neighbours gathering with babies bundled in blankets fresh from their beds.

"Then I started smelling the smoke, and I said to Nala 'We have to go out.' I hung up the phone, grabbed my kids and dressed them up and went outside."

A friend in 213 told her to bring herself, her two sons, ages 3 and 12, and nephew inside. Safe from the cold, the youngest boy watched as the windows in the burning unit exploded.

"Before that, the RCMP told us we might have to be evacuated when the smell gets stronger," Temela said. "Less than five minutes later, the window exploded and we had to be evacuated."

The speed of the fire surprised acting fire chief Chris Wilson, who arrived first on the scene five minutes after the building's monitored alarm system was triggered at 9:40 p.m.

"I knew there was a serious problem the moment I got on scene," Wilson said. "It was fully involved and had moved to every single room in that unit. That stunned me. It was relatively early in the evening and the alarm system kicked in. I wasn't expecting that. I've never seen anything like that in 10 years as duty or incident commander."

The trouble was just starting as crews arrived five minutes after Wilson.

"Within 15 minutes of when I arrived, the fire was already progressing to the other units and it probably had a good 20 minutes of free burning, which is a long time for a fire," he said.

Residents told him there were two people inside Unit 307, but he knew right away "that was a moot point because it was not survivable," he said.

Crews were sent into neighbouring Unit 305 but once upstairs, the bedroom below them "flashed over" so they abandoned the unit and went to the other side, Unit 309.

"The floors were already collapsing," he said. "It made it untenable to go inside the structure to fight it and contain it. I can't go from the left, I can't go from the right, I can only go head on, and I knew it was going to go."

Within 45 minutes of Wilson's arrival, he directed his crews to focus on saving the neighbouring 200 row of houses, he said.

Firefighters were on scene until 1 p.m. the next day. Two firefighters suffered frostbite, one severe enough that he had to be taken off the call to seek medical care.

RCMP confirmed Feb. 28 that two people were missing after the fire, and were "believed to have been in the fire." Names were not released as of March 1. On March 2, police confirmed human remains were found at the scene. Police are working with the chief coroner's office to identify the remains.

The RCMP, Iqaluit fire department, and Nunavut fire marshal are investigating the cause of the fire.

Additional forensic identification services will assist the investigation.

The row of houses was one of six similar buildings owned by Nunastar Properties in the valley below the company's Frobisher Inn.

Most of the units had three bedrooms, manager Don Sinclaire-Chenier said, and 21 of the units were rented by Nunavut Arctic College students.

"Our hearts go out to all of those students and their families left homeless by this fire," college president Michael Shouldice said in a release.

Nunavut Arctic College has found housing for all victims, and donation drives have brought in an abundance of clothing and other necessities.

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