A vehicle caught fire on Wednesday evening in Iqlauit, causing a large blaze and a plume of black smoke that could be seen across the city.
The vehicle, an SUV, was parked outside an apartment building on Queen Elizabeth, just down the street from Ventures, a local grocery store. It caught fire around 7:00pm, and within minutes, it was engulfed in flame, and its original colour was no longer discernable.
Firefighters and police arrived at the scene of the fire in minutes. There were two full-sized fire trucks on the scene, which put the blaze out soon after their arrival. It did not appear that any injuries or damage to other property occurred, however, residents of nearby buildings—several of whom had their windows open—may be smelling smoke for some time.
It was not immediately clear what started the fire. Neither the fire department nor RCMP have shared any information on the fire at the time of this report, and even the first people to arrive on the scene were unsure what had happened.
“We just saw the smoke and ran here,” one woman said.
“I saw the smoke and came,” said another spectator, who noted that there had been lots of people around at the time.
While local police were quick to stop traffic of either end of the block, a crowd of well over 100 pedestrians had gathered by the time the blaze was put out, taking pictures and videos of the blackened vehicle as it dripped water. Many of them were children who had been playing outside Nakasuk School down the street, but authorities were able to keep the crowd at a distance while the fire was active.