Dump catches fire in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut

Dumps in Nunavut's two largest communities are now burning after the dump in Rankin Inlet caught fire Tuesday.

​Firefighters attempted to put out the fire, but small explosions prevented that work. 

Deputy mayor Sam Tutanuak says the possibility of people being injured is high. 

For now, Tutanuak says they are monitoring the fire and trying to contain it.

The hamlet council is advising everyone to stay away from the dump, and to keep children away, too. 

Rankin Inlet now joins Iqaluit, where the dump has been burning since May 20. 

A dump fire also broke out in Hay River, N.W.T., that month when a truck driver, unaware the load was on fire, dumped it on the landfill. Firefighters there managed to put out the fire about 12 hours later. 

Another fire broke out at a dump in Fort Smith, N.W.T., June 3. The town's senior administrative officer, Jim Hood, said the fire was contained to the dump's electronics section.