North

Fourplex destroyed by fire in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut

It took 15 firefighters more than 10 hours to put out a fire that levelled an apartment complex in the community of just over 2,500. Nobody was inside any of the units.

Fire Chief Mark Wyatt says nobody was inside any of the units within the building

The remainder of the fourplex is visible in the centre of this photo. Fire Chief Matt Wyatt says no one was inside at the time. (William Maqqu Munroe/Facebook)

No one was hurt when a fire ripped through a fourplex in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, on Sunday.

Officials got the call around 4:20 a.m. and continued to fight the fire for 10 hours in -28 with the wind chill. 

Fifteen firefighters — each one on-call volunteers except for the fire chief — battled the blaze, ultimately not being able to save the building.

But fire Chief Mark Wyatt says he's still proud of their work. 

"We have a really good team out here," he said. 

While the firefighters continued to try to control the blaze, momentarily warming up in the one ambulance in town, officials also got a medical call. That required the ambulance and even more on-call volunteers.  

Wyatt said, initially, there were reports that someone was in one of the units when the complex caught fire, but those reports weren't true. He said no one was inside any of the units. 

Wyatt said the investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing. 

With files from Jane Sponagle