SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
For the third time in less than two weeks a fire has badly damaged a home in Yellowknife and for a second time crews struggled to bring the blaze under control in an area of the city not served by fire hydrants.
Water at the Enterprise Road fire had to be trucked by the fire department to the scene because there are no hydrants in Kam Lake. It is not believed that anyone was injured. - John McFadden NNSL photo |
Firefighters were called to a residence at 124 Enterprise Rd. in Kam Lake industrial area, right beside Manitoulin Transport at about 6:00 p.m. on Canada Day - last Friday.
The blaze began only a couple hours after firefighters responded to a vehicle fire at the Long Lake parking lot at Fred Henne Territorial Park. The fire there completely engulfed a jeep.
Water at the Enterprise Road fire had to be trucked by the fire department to the scene because there are no hydrants in Kam Lake. It is not believed that anyone was injured.
Eric Jonasson lives right next door.
"I just looked out the window and I saw the barbecue next door flaring up. It sounded like a torch going off," Jonasson said. "It was like a propane leak. I didn't hear an explosion. I called RCMP and got out of my house."
Jonasson said he was not sure how many people escaped the blaze.
Of the three recent house fires in the city, two of them happened in areas where there are no fire hydrants and crews appeared to have issues with their water pressure.
Similar to what happened at a fire at a home on Bretzlaff Drive in Old Town on June 21, firefighters were literally standing outside and watching the house burn because they had no water pressure. It is not exactly clear why.
When water is trucked to the scene of a fire it comes out of the tanker truck and flows into a reservoir which is where firefighters take it from. At Friday night's fire, water flowed through the hoses for several seconds but then shut off. That happened several times Friday evening, much like what happened in Old Town two weeks ago tomorrow.
News/North asked to speak to fire department officials about the struggle to fight fires when there are no accessible hydrants but no response was made before press time.
A news release was issued late Friday evening stating a total of 16 personnel responded to the blaze, including one aerial pumper, an ambulance, rescue truck, two water tankers and a command vehicle. Police told firefighters that the home's sole occupant and two cats had safely vacated.
The news release confirms a tanker shuttle was used to provide water supply but does not mention any issues with water availability at the scene.
The fire department maintained fire watches throughout the night to check for re-ignition of any hots spots, according to the news release.
There is still no official cause for the Old Town fire nor another fire two nights later at a house under construction on Moyle Drive at Niven Lake, according to NWT Fire Marshal Chucker Dewer.
"With the Old Town fire - we've gathered evidence from the scene and we're conducting a further analysis so we have not confirmed cause and origin of that fire at this time," said Dewar.
"With the Niven fire we are not prepared to release cause and origin at this time and we're continuing to investigate."
Dewer said he did not hear anything about water issues regarding the fire in Old Town. But he was not willing to discuss the city's tactics for fighting fires in areas without hydrants.
News/North watched as a private citizen with his own tanker truck who, at one point, was the only person putting water on the fire.
There is no cause determined as of yet for Friday night's fire and no estimate of damages.
