Barbecue suspected cause of Niven Drive fire
No one hurt in city's fourth house fire in just over three weeks
John McFadden
Northern News Services
UPDATED: Friday, July 15, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
For the fourth time in just over three weeks, a fire has extensively damaged a home in Yellowknife.
Flames burn the roof and the deck of a home at 145 Niven Dr. in the Niven Lake subdivision Wednesday morning. Neighbours said they heard an explosion and believed it was the gas barbecue on the house's second-storey deck. - John McFadden/NNSL photo |
Firefighters were called to 145 Niven Dr. in the Niven Lake subdivision just after 9 a.m. Wednesday after neighbours reported flames on the back deck of the large, three-storey home. Everyone who was inside reportedly got out safely. Neighbours said the home is occupied by NWT Supreme Court Judge Andrew Mahar. Neighbours also said a gas barbecue on the second-storey back deck appeared to be the source of the fire.
The City of Yellowknife confirmed in a news release that the barbecue was the cause. The fire department responded with 17 personnel and initiated a full group alert, calling in all available firefighters due to the number of phone calls received at the dispatch centre. The house was fully engulfed in flames when they arrived, according to the news release. Municipal enforcement officers quickly closed the road off to traffic.
Jane Mooney lives right next door.
"There was a terrible hiss and then an explosion. I thought someone was pressure washing the house. That's what it sounded like. We thought we would go see what the problem was and someone said they had already called the fire brigade," she said.
"They got here in what seemed like about five minutes."
Mooney added that some of the siding on her home melted due to the heat and said it looked like the same thing had happened to the house on the other side.
Those neighbours brought their garden hose out to try to help fight the fire as crews were arriving but were unable to extinguish what by that time had become a major blaze.
"It was burning really quickly," said another neighbour who only wanted to give his first name, Jonah.
"I called the fire department and my mom knocked on their door. I saw one young boy get out."
It is still not clear if the barbecue was being used at the time of the fire.
It also was not apparent whether the barbecue was directly hooked to a gas line or whether was connected to a propane tank. Dozens of neighbours gathered to watch the fire, relieved that no one had been hurt.
Manik Duggar watched the fire with his wife from the front yard of their home, directly across the street from the fire.
"It is scary. I got a text a work saying there is a fire close to your home so I returned from work, worried that it could be our house," Duggar said.
NWT Fire Marshal Chucker Dewar said it is rare to see so many house fires in such a short span of time.
He is pleading for residents to use their barbecues safely and make sure they are cleaned and maintained properly.
"On a barbecue you have a number of lines and fittings that propane runs through. It's important that residents check those lines and fittings on a regular basis to ensure that they are not leaking any propane," Dewar said.
"You do that by mixing a little soap and water and then painting the soap and water onto the lines and fittings. If there are any leaks it will bubble up."
Dewar said it is also important that barbecues are not placed up against any walls or wooden railings.
This is the second recent fire in Niven Lake this summer. Flames badly damaged a home on Moyle Drive on June 23. Another fire on June 21 gutted a home on Bretzlaff Drive in the Willow Flats area of Old Town, and a fire on Canada Day badly damaged a home on Enterprise Drive in Kam Lake. Although it was not the cause, a gas barbecue contributed to the Kam Lake fire, according to Dewar.
A cause for the fire in Old Town has yet to be determined. None of the fires have been deemed suspicious in nature.
