The home of well-known Kivalliq husband-and-wife artists and owners of the Matchbox Gallery, Jim and Sue Shirley, was destroyed by fire on 25th Street in Rankin Inlet on Wednesday, Jan. 8.

Rankin Fire Chief Mark Wyatt said the call came in at about 9:43 p.m.

He said the caller reported that there was smoke in the home and the individual saw some flames.

SA国际影视传媒淕eorge (Aksadjuak) was the duty officer and he was at the scene in less than two minutes,SA国际影视传媒� said Wyatt. SA国际影视传媒淛im and Sue were still inside the structure and Jim is moving pretty slowly these days. They hadn't gotten out of the house completely yet and were in the porch when George arrived.

SA国际影视传媒淗e helped them get out of the house and looked inside to find the entire house full of smoke. He got them to safety, put them in the duty truck, did a page-out and the first engine was on scene about, probably, five or six minutes later.

SA国际影视传媒淲e had an attack crew lined up and ready to go in within two or three more minutes.SA国际影视传媒�

Wyatt said the crew opened the door and went in approximately 10 feet before being met with black smoke. The firefighters could see nothing at all inside the dwelling, he added.

SA国际影视传媒淲ith something like that SA国际影视传媒� because it hadn't been vented at all apart from them going in the doorway SA国际影视传媒� it quickly flashed over, all the smoke lit up and they backed out right away.

SA国际影视传媒淔rom that point on we were into, pretty much, a fully-involved house fire.SA国际影视传媒�

Wyatt said the firefighters left the scene at about 1:30 a.m. the following morning and were at the fire station until about 3 a.m. cleaning up.

He said the volunteer brigade had no hope of saving the structure.

SA国际影视传媒淚t was an older home. I think they were built here in the late '70s. It was kind of like a modular trailer home from that era. The inside walls weren't drywall or anything. They were almost like a panelling, and that's extremely flammable.

SA国际影视传媒淓verybody who answered the call were fine; just a little tired. We had a blizzard that day, as well, so the weather, although it had calmed down a bit that night, was still fairly windy and there was a lot of excessive snow.

SA国际影视传媒淪o, approaching the building in two-or-three feet of snow in some places made it much more difficult to fight the fire. A lot of the fires we face here in the wintertime can be pretty challenging.

SA国际影视传媒淵ou're working with frozen hoses and frozen gear. When you're spraying water, the water sprays on your gear and it's freezing. So I had eight frozen firefighters within an hour or two.SA国际影视传媒�