Tent pad destroyed in Yellowknife fire on Saturday, residents uninjured

One of two tent pads built last week for homeless Yellowknifers was destroyed in a fire on Saturday, according to one of the volunteers who helped build it.

Dingeman Van Bochove is part of a group of volunteers that built two tent platforms for unhoused Yellowknife residents last week.

One of those tent platforms caught fire on Saturday, according to N.W.T. Fire. It was located in a wooded area off 48 Street near the N.W.T. legislature.

Van Bochove told CBC he has been to see the platform and spoken to John Keknek, who was living in a tent on the platform with his wife.

The couple have "lost everything," Van Bochove said.

Keknek told Van Bochove that neither he nor his partner was at the tent platform at the time of the fire, and both are uninjured.

The cause of the fire is still unknown, according to N.W.T. Fire. 

The City of Yellowknife is leading the investigation into the fire.

City of Yellowknife representative Kerry Thistle told CBC that both the Yellowknife fire department and wildland firefighters attended the scene Saturday. RCMP and an ambulance were also there "for safety and traffic control," she said.

Residents first reported seeing a thick plume of smoke in the area around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.

By around 5:15 p.m. that day, emergency vehicles had departed and there was no sign of smoke in the area.

There is currently a fire ban in place for the whole North Slave region, which includes Yellowknife, because of elevated fire danger due to hot and dry conditions.

Van Bochove said that he is working to secure a new tent for Keknek and his wife for Sunday night, and that he and other volunteers hope to build a new tent platform for the couple on Monday.

"We just have to make it more secure, safer," he said.

He added that he hopes others in the community will also try and help Keknek and his wife.

"It would be nice to stand behind him as a community," Van Bochove said.