Polaris Apartments fire leaves Yellowknife residents homeless
Crews demolish top floor after Yellowknife apartment building burns overnight
Yellowknife RCMP are investigating a fire that almost completely razed a Yellowknife apartment building Sunday.
The 17-suite Polaris Apartments building caught fire after 1 a.m. The building, which is located at the corner of 52nd Ave and 49th Street, is owned by Northern Property REIT.
Yellowknife's fire department said no one was seriously injured, though one person was treated for smoke inhalation. RCMP say they are treating the incident as "suspicious" and are investigating.
Firefighters worked to extinguish the flames into the afternoon.
"Fire crews are exhausted. Everyone got out of the building safely," CBC reporter Hilary Bird wrote on Twitter at 11 a.m. as she watched fire crews dousing the remaining flames.
CBC videographer Randall McKenzie filmed mechanical shovels destroying the apartment's roof during the fire's end stages.
Many people's apartments — which were first burned in the fire, then soaked by fire hoses and finally torn apart by a mechanical shovels — were obliterated.
Donnel Browning, who is one of the residents, said he'd lost all the photos of his children.
Community comes together
The fire has left a number of people homeless.
A community campaign began Sunday before the flames were extinguished.
Donations of clothing and personal supplies are being collected at Norseman Apartments and Crestview Apartments in Yellowknife. Organizers are asking people to hold off on donating furniture until it can be determined how many people will be receiving new apartments.
A bank account for cash donations is expected to be set up on Monday afternoon.
Cynthia Grandjambe, who lives right beside the Polaris Apartments, helped to start the donation drive.
"This is a time of crisis for these people," she said.
Yellowknife residents also brought coffee to exhausted members of the fire department Sunday morning after crews had been on site more than eight hours.
"Yellowknifers, we've always stuck behind each other, and now's the time to step up once again and help these people out," Grandjambe said.
During the afternoon, Polaris Apartments' tenants were ferried by bus to stores around Yellowknife to pick up supplies.
The building's owner, Northern Property REIT, gave them gift certificates before they were placed in hotel rooms for the night.
Some looked through bags of donated clothing for something to wear.
Northern Property REIT said the company will try to place tenants in other buildings.
Investigators have not yet determined the cause of the fire.