Jess McDiarmid
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, Wednesday, April 02, 2008

YELLOWKNIFE - The NWT coroner's office will not call a public inquest into the March 2005 deaths of two Yellowknife firefighters, the deputy chief coroner has said.

"I don't think a public inquest is in the best interest of everybody so I don't think it's something we need to call up in 2008," said Cathy Menard.

She said she has received a lot of information from the NWT Worker's Compensation Board, which investigated the March 17, 2005, incident that left Lt. Cyril Fyfe and Kevin Olson dead.

Menard said she has asked for a few more details but the situation doesn't meet the criteria set out in the NWT Coroners Act that would demand an inquest.

"With (the WCB report), they brought all the stuff to light and they made recommendations and they followed up," said Menard.

"So for us it would just be duplicate."

Under the act, the coroner can call an inquest to identify the deceased or the circumstances of death, to inform the public of the circumstances when it would serve a public purpose and to bring to light dangerous practices or conditions to avoid preventable deaths, which sometimes includes making recommendations to change those practices.

"So if you've already met all of the criteria, what would be the point of holding it?"

The WCB report, which has not been publicly released, includes conditions that have been met, said Menard.

Prior to hearing of Menard's decision, former fire marshal Bernie Van Tighem said he thought a public inquest should happen.

"The important thing here is that there has to be a recognition of what went wrong and there has to be a move to correct that," said Van Tighem, who moved to B.C. in April 2007. "And what went wrong isn't limited to March 17, 2005. There's obviously issues that led up to that."

Van Tighem, who was also a volunteer firefighter in the Yellowknife department from 2001 to 2005, said an unbiased look at the factors that contributed to the incident is important but it can't be a "blame event."

"Calling blame never works, it doesn't fix anything."

After learning of the decision, Van Tighem said he thought an inquest would have been a good idea but it was up to the coroner, whose mandate is to ensure preventable deaths don't happen again and who has information not available to the public.

Former chief coroner Percy Kinney requested reports and findings from the Workers Compensation Board and the city in 2006, saying the decision on whether to call an inquest would depend on whether he felt there was a satisfactory "public airing of the facts."

Once he had all the information, he would either write a report with recommendations or launch the inquest, said Kinney at the time.

Menard said a coroner's report available to the public will be coming later this spring.

The firefighters were killed fighting a blaze inside a saw shed at the Home Building Centre on Old Airport Road. Both died of asphyxiation when the roof collapsed on them.

Fyfe, who was 41 at the time, was an 18-year veteran of the department. Olson, 24, was battling the first blaze of his career.

Following the incident, the WCB charged the city, its fire chief and a deputy fire chief for failing to take all necessary and reasonable safety precautions and failing to provide adequate safety training.

Charges against former fire Chief Mick Beauchamp were stayed after he retired from the department. WCB later stayed charges against the city and deputy chief Darcy Hernblad under an agreement that required the city and deputy chief to meet a host of conditions, including creating a safety fund and providing training to all officers in position of command.

Craig Halifax, president of the local firefighters' union, said yesterday the organization had no official comment on the decision of the coroner's office.