'A hard fought night': Fire destroys building, ambulance in Inuvik, N.W.T.
Advanced Medical Solutions Inc. CEO Sean Ivens says blaze will not affect emergency services
An overnight fire in Inuvik, N.W.T., destroyed an ambulance base and one ambulance early Saturday morning.
It took 22 firefighters nine hours to get the fire under control, according to Inuvik's acting fire chief, Jonathon Michel. The fire department received a call reporting the fire just after 1 a.m.
"It was a very hard fought night and our crew did quite well," he said, explaining the building's age and design made the fire especially difficult to fight.
"We had quite a fight in front of us in order to get ahead of [the fire] and we did as well as we could."
As of 10 a.m., Michel said the fire under control, as crews continued to watch hot spots to guard against flare ups. He confirmed there were no injuries.
Michel said it's still early in the investigation, but at this point there is nothing about the fire that leads him to believe it is suspicious.
Sean Ivens, CEO of Advanced Medical Solutions Inc., which occupies the building located on Arctic Road, said the base was unoccupied at the time of the fire.
"We had one of the [ambulances] out," he said, adding that the other ambulance was lost in the fire, plus a lot of supplies.
Ivens said most of the destroyed supplies were part of the company's backup stock, so Inuvik residents won't see a gap in service from the fire.
He said a plane filled with replacement supplies is scheduled to fly to Inuvik by the end of the weekend and the company is working on getting a replacement ambulance there as well.