Polaris Apartments fire leaves Yellowknife residents homeless

Yellowknife RCMP are investigating a fire that almost completely razed a Yellowknife apartment building Sunday.

The 17-suite PolarisApartments building caught fire after 1a.m.The building, which is locatedat the corner of52nd Ave and 49th Street,is owned byNorthern PropertyREIT.

Yellowknife's fire department saidno 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 flamesinto the afternoon.

"Fire crews are exhausted. Everyone got out of the building safely," CBC reporter Hilary Bird wroteon Twitter at 11 a.m. as she watched fire crews dousing the remaining flames.

CBC videographerRandallMcKenzie 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 andfinally torn apart by a mechanical shovels were obliterated.

Donnel Browning, who is one of the residents, said he'dlost all the photos of his children.

Community comes together

The fire has lefta 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 Apartmentsin 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.

CynthiaGrandjambe, wholives right beside the Polaris Apartments, helpedto start thedonation 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 aftercrews hadbeen on sitemore 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," Grandjambesaid.

During the afternoon, Polaris Apartments' tenants were ferried by bus to stores around Yellowknifeto pick up supplies.

The building's owner, Northern Property REIT,gave themgift certificatesbefore they wereplaced 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.