INUVIK
A fire at a bush camp along the Mackenzie River March 30 has claimed the life of an unidentified man.

This is all that remains of a cabin along the Mackenzie River south of Inuvik after a fire on the morning of March 30. One man is dead and two men were injured in the blaze. The name of the deceased man has not yet been released, pending an official identification. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

Inuvik Fire Chief Jim Sawkins said the fire department received a telephone call about the blaze at 9:57 a.m. March 30 and responded within minutes.

The fire was located several kilometres down a single-lane ice road on the river south of the main ice highway, a few kilometres from the Gwich'in Wellness Centre.

"This was not a standard call for us," Sawkins said.

The call was made by two men who managed to escape the fire at the small cabin on the bank of the river. It's in an area where there is little cellphone coverage, and they placed the call from within town after they had driven in, Sawkins said,.

The small cabin had burnt to the ground by the time firefighters arrived, leaving only ashes and a man's body to be found.

Additional equipment had to be called in to make room for the fire vehicles along the road.

Sawkins said it was the first fatal fire firefighters had been called to since he assumed control of the department in 2010. He organized the department for a stress debriefing on March 31, along with the RCMP, to help the responders on the scene to cope.

The identity of the victim has not been released by the RCMP pending an official identification, according to a media release. The coroner's office has taken over the investigation now, said RCMP spokesperson, Cpl. Barry Ledoux.

Sawkins said the cabin had likely burned to the ground even before the department had been notified.

The two survivors, he said, had forced their way out of the back of the cabin after the roof caught fire.

It was unclear why the deceased man couldn't get out.

The blaze ran extremely hot, with temperatures as high as 660 C, he said, judging by the melted aluminium.

Sawkins said he and representatives from the fire marshal's office were back on the scene March 31 investigating the fire, and believe there is nothing suspicious about it.

Sawkins said he believed the roof had dried out and deteriorated over time with exposure to the heat from the makeshift wood stove and uninsulated stove pipe.

Those conditions are typical of many riverside and remote camps, he said. It's impossible to ensure that such camps are built to proper standards, he said, and the best the fire department and town can do is try to encourage people to make them as safe as possible.

"We have free smoke detectors and batteries available here at the fire hall," he said. "I don't know if it would have made a difference in this case, but I encourage everyone to have one at their camps.

"We want to make the cabins as safe as possible," he reiterated.

It was a very difficult scene for the department to reach, Sawkins said, and he's looking at revamping the response protocol of the department as a result.

There are many places on the land and along the river the department simply can't get to, and many others where the length of the response time is such that any buildings are likely to have been destroyed by the time the department arrived, he said.