SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The night the Namushka Lodge burned to the ground in a forest fire outside Yellowknife, owner Bryan Chorostkowski says he had mere minutes to warn his family and friends staying at the fishing lodge for the weekend and reach the safety of Harding Lake.
Namushka Lodge was destroyed last Friday night in a fire along the Ingraham Trail. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources suspects the fire was person-caused. - photocourtesy of Bryan Chorostkowski
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If he hadn't received a phone call from his brother telling him the winds were pushing the fire south from Reid Lake, he said the situation could have turned deadly.
"Everybody out there firmly believes that lives could have been lost if not for some luck of being down there on that (firebreak) and us seeing it coming," Chorostkowski said.
"If we would have been in the middle of supper, all in the main lodge, with the kids laughing and shouting and everything else, we wouldn't have even heard it coming. It would have been mass chaos."
After the phone call from his brother last Friday night, Chorostkowski said he decided to check the firebreak behind the lodge, a fire preventative measure the family had taken during record breaking fire seasons in NWT in previous years, as well as turn the water pumps and sprinklers on.
That's when Chorostkowski said he heard what sounded like the roar of a jet engine and looked up to see flames licking the tree tops and black smoke about 500 feet from the lodge.
"My one friend looked over and said, 'Oh my god, it's right there!'" he recalled.
Luckily, the 11 children and 10 adults who decided to take a leisurely weekend at the Namushka Lodge escaped unharmed.
"I said, 'Get everybody down to the boats!' And I was able to quickly send my brother three texts. I said, 'It has jumped our line.' 'We gotta go,' and 'Send a plane down to the cabin.' And then I ran out," Chorostkowski said.
"We got into the boats and it started consuming the whole lodge. I want to say we had two minutes to spare - if that."
 | 'We didn't get any notice' | 
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Last Thursday evening, a fire near the Ingraham Trail forced the evacuation of Reid Lake Territorial Park and Camp Connections, a camp for foster children located on the Cameron River. A cabin located about 15 kilometres north of Namushka Lodge on Pickerel Lake was also burned in the fire, according to Richard Olsen, manager of fire operations for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR).
Chorostkowski explained Namushka Lodge can only be reached by float plane in the summer and had survived extreme fire seasons in the past because of the fire precautions the family has taken on the property after recommendations were made by ENR.
Now, with his family and friends safe, Chorostkowski said he is looking to the department for answers about why nobody warned him about the fire's change in trajectory.
"We didn't get any notice," he said. "They did not have any contact with us. They did not give us any warning and now ENR will not answer any of my questions. I've approached them twice to ask them what happened that night that consumed our lodge and put all of our lives in jeopardy."
He added that he received a phone call from ENR that said it was busy fighting the fire and wouldn't get back to him until next week.
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| 'Person-caused' fire |
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Yellowknifer contacted ENR by e-mail, and although the department said it could not comment while the fire investigation is ongoing, spokesperson Judy McLinton did say the fire is suspected to be "person-caused."
In the e-mail, McLinton stated the department has a standing-offer agreement with a "qualified firm from Alberta to conduct fire environment assessments and documentation."
"The contractor will perform reconstruction and analysis on (the fire) to determine the environmental and situational conditions that led to the fire," stated McLinton.
"Analysis to determine the environmental and situational conditions regarding the loss of the Namushka Lodge in the fire will also be done."
The e-mail also states that investigations are done on most suspected person-caused fires.
"We have used qualified contractors in the past to perform post-fire event reconstruction and analysis for wildland fire investigations and/or to develop a case study or other relevant information, which can be used for management purposes."
During a telephone interview with Yellowknifer on Wednesday, Chorostkowski said he was frustrated with ENR's lack of response while people were in danger at his lodge, especially when his family members were able to fly into the fire zone and get everyone out.
He said he contacted his MLA in Yellowknife North, Cory Vanthuyne, with the hopes of getting answers.
"Given the circumstances and the situation that they experienced, not only is it understandable that they want some answers to some questions, but there's obviously some things to be learned here from ENR," Vanthuyne said.
"If there is in fact a necessity to review the circumstance and review the incident and see what if any improvements might be able to be made so that these kinds of things aren't happening in the future and that no assets or life - for that matter - be at risk in the future."
"I don't even know what the right word is," Chorostkowski said. "It's disturbing for me to think about how a lot of lives could have been lost. (ENR) priorities are to save lives, and save values of interest, and they did neither of that."
