Fire Scare at the Piguttuk Family Resource Centre

Staff of the Piguttuk Family Resource Centre had quite a scare this morning.

Tabea Solomon is the bookkeeper for the Centre.

She says she noticed water flowing into a basement hatch located on the side of the building.

When she went to inspect the situation, Solomon smelled smoke coming from the basement.

After a few quick calls, a number of residents rushed to the scene.

About 25 people quickly moved the contents of the building outside.

While this was happening, the volunteer fire brigade arrived on the scene.

George Lyall is the deputy fire chief with the brigade.

He says that he inspected the situation and gave the ok to start moving the contents of the building back into the center.

He believes the fire was started when the water came into contact with one of the electrical appliances in the basement.

Lyall says the fire caused very little damage to the center.

But the flooding of the basement caused quite a bit of damage.

He says there was about a foot of water in the basement.

Rose Brown is the Coordinator for the center.

She says that the important items from the building have been saved.

Brown says they are currently without power and heat in the center.

Town workers are heading to the center today to pump the water from the basement.

There are also people constructing a trench to direct the water away from the building.

Brown says that until power is restored, programming will be cancelled for the center.

The staff also has to do an inventory on all the center’s items.

She says she’s extremely grateful for the quick response of community members.

And that it was a great show of community spirit.