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Crestview fire under investigation Kevin Allerston Northern News Services Published Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Mayor Gord Van Tighem, who speaks on behalf of the Yellowknife Fire Department, said the fire was isolated to a single unit on the second floor - 206- but a lot of smoke made its way throughout the building. He said because of light traffic, emergency crews were on scene almost immediately and by that point, most residents had been evacuated from the apartment building's 24 units. Van Tighem praised the quick response of the fire department, who he said arrived almost immediately, for the fact fire was limited to the second floor of the building. "Nobody was hurt, that's the important thing. A little property damage you can fix, but when people get hurt that's much worse. But in this case, nobody was," he said. "The tenant got out of his apartment and ran down the halls banging on everybody's doors to get all his neighbours out," said Van Tighem. "People weren't allowed back in until the next day, probably 11:30 a.m., because there was so much smoke that the CO2 level was too high," said Van Tighem. Representatives with the Northern Property office in Yellowknife, which manages Crestview Manor, declined to comment. Fire marshal Stephen Moss said his office would have to wait to complete its investigation before it can determine the cause of the blaze or the value of damage done. "What I can tell you, is it's under investigation at this time and we can't make a determination as to the cause, though we can say we don't believe it was suspicious," he said. Yellowknife fire Chief Darcy Hernblad could not be reached for comment by press time but did issue a press release. "Firefighters were able to get control of the fire within the first few minutes using a single attack hose line. The majority of on-scene time was clearing smoke from all three floors and opening walls and ceiling to check for fire extension (hot spots)," the release stated.
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