Fire destroys Rankin four-plex
Firefighters risk lives to search for woman who left before fire started
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Monday, November 7, 2016
KANGIQLINIQ/RANKIN INLET
No one was injured in a blaze that destroyed a four-plex rental unit in Rankin Inlet on Oct. 30.
photo courtesy of Mark Wyatt |
Firefighters were called to the scene at 4:20 a.m., and fought the blaze for the entire morning.
Damage from the fire is estimated at $1 million. The cause of the blaze was still under investigation as of press time.
The efforts of the Rankin Inlet Fire Department to contain the flames were initially delayed as firefighters risked their lives to search for a person a tenant believed was still inside.
Fire chief Mark Wyatt said that immediately turned the department's attention away from fighting the fire.
"Rather than immediately attacking the fire, I sent two firefighters inside to search for the potential victim," said Wyatt. "They're blowing the fire down but we're not really fighting the structure because our priority is rescue."
The two firefighters searched in extreme conditions for 10 to 15 minutes, he said.
"I sent two more in to help them, but they came out without finding anyone, and, at that point, the conditions were such that if there was anyone still inside that building, they were already dead," he said.
The department found out later that the woman who was feared inside the building had actually left more than an hour before the fire broke out.
Wyatt said she was tracked down through social media.
He said a man was frantically trying to get the firefighters to go into the building to search for the woman when they first arrived, who was 100 per cent convinced she was still inside.
"He was very intoxicated at the time, and he ran inside the building once himself and we had to pull him out. I wouldn't say the (search) was the reason we lost the building but it certainly didn't help in terms of our goal to put out the fire."
One firefighter fell through the floor during the search.
"His partner had to help get him out - and they almost ran out of air while inside. They had 4,500-pound bottles, which are supposed to be good for 45 minutes but, under stressful situations, you might get 20 out of them."
Wyatt said one unit was burning heavily when the department first arrived.
He said there's a 30-inch space underneath the floor, of which about 20 inches are insulation.
"The insulation burns heavily and very hot when it catches, and you also have all your electrical wiring and water - basically the utilidor line - running the full length of the building with no fire separation between one unit and the next."
In the confined space, the fire will burn all along the building, he said.
"That's, basically, how the fire spread from one unit to the next, through that space under the floor. We had a lot of challenges accessing that space and we didn't realize the fire was into the next unit until it started to come up."
Wyatt said the burning building otherwise reacted the way it should.
He said it's designed with each unit being compartmentalized, with fire separation along the attic.
"The buildings are designed according to the national building codes to allow enough time to prevent injury and get everyone out if the building's on fire. So nobody did anything wrong in terms of the way the building was constructed but it made it very difficult for us to fight the fire when it got into the basement and spread along to the different units."
The 15 firefighters were on the scene for about 10 hours.
A crew was sent back an hour later to deal with some spot fires in the rubble.
The firefighters were also dealing with -28C temperatures with the windchill.
A couple of hose lines froze under the conditions.
The department's older truck also froze, while the new truck was initially being used to fight the blaze.
Wyatt said the crew also had to deal with the challenge of their gear getting wet and freezing.
"My gear had, basically, a sheet of ice over the top of it," Wyatt said. "A lot of people's gloves were soaking wet and people had to get warm but the new truck's enclosed pump panel made it a great place for people to warm up, plus the operator was able to work the whole scene in a heated compartment."
The hamlet's ambulance was on scene to help firefighters, too.
"That also made a huge difference in battling a very difficult fire. The crew did really well, considering what we had to work with and that most of the people on my team had never experienced anything like this before."
