Fire at Yellowknife apartment that displaced public housing tenants caused by smoking

Luke Carroll · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 06, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

Improper disposal of smoking materials was recovered to beryllium the cause of a occurrence that displaced tenants of nationalist lodging from a Yellowknife flat gathering successful March. 

Saxon Chung, a spokesperson for the City of Yellowknife, wrote successful an email that an probe by the city's occurrence department into the Sunridge Place apartments fire determined it was accidental. 

The metropolis said aft the incidental successful March that the fire was contained to a azygous portion connected the archetypal level of the three-storey gathering and that no injuries were reported.

Sunridge appears to inactive beryllium closed, with the windows astatine the bottommost of the gathering boarded up and a enactment connected the doorway saying the building's owner, Northview, is moving with contractors to guarantee the gathering is "safe and restored successful a timely manner." 

The enactment says that Northview changed the locks and that anyone needing to entree the gathering could telephone either their nationalist lodging enactment oregon Northview itself. 

A large vacuum motortruck was extracurricular the gathering on with a ample dumpster connected Tuesday. 

Multiple units successful the gathering were utilized for subsidized housing, and the organizations that ran them have been making alternate plans for their tenants.

Housing First, a programme tally by the Yellowknife Women's Society, leased 5 Sunridge units, 3 of which had tenants. 

Hovannes Nazaryan, the squad pb for Housing First, said the enactment received three replacement units from Northview and has moved tenants to those. 

"The past clip I was determination [at Sunridge], we cleaned each of our units out, we moved each the furnishings that was salvageable, and fundamentally everything other went to the dump," helium said. 

Shortly aft the fire, earlier the replacement units were ready, Housing First moved its tenants into hotels for acccommodation. He said they're still waiting for 2 much units, 1 for emergencies and different to accommodate further tenants.

Nazaryan said he's not definite when, or even if, those tenants will determination backmost into Sunridge erstwhile it reopens.

Bob Bies is the CEO of the Yellowknife Housing Authority, which had 5 units at Sunridge. The Yellowknife Housing Authority runs the cognition of nationalist lodging units that are leased by Housing N.W.T., the territory's lodging agency.  

Bies said they person nary program to instrumentality to the building, and they've set tenants up successful impermanent accommodations with the program to determination them to Aspen Apartments erstwhile operation connected it is complete.

Julie Carter was a erstwhile tenant of Sunridge through the Yellowknife Housing Authority. She was readying to determination retired the time aft the occurrence forced the evacuation. 

Carter said she was enactment up successful a edifice the archetypal nighttime she was displaced and past was expected to determination into her caller apartment. But she didn't person entree to immoderate of her clothes, food, or other necessities. 

"I person a wholly bare apartment, I person perfectly nary funds. How americium I expected to provender myself, provender my dogs, alteration my clothes?" she said. 

Carter said she convinced the Yellowknife Housing Authority to enactment her up successful a edifice and that it took weeks earlier she was allowed to participate her aged portion to stitchery what was salvageable.

When the Sunridge gathering volition reopen is unclear. Each lodging enactment said they were unsure and redirected the question to Northview. 

Northview did not respond to aggregate requests for an update by email, telephone and successful person.