Sprinklers put out fire in Iqaluit apartment building

An apartment fire in Iqaluit caused the evacuation of a large building in the city Friday.

Fire crews responded to an alarm at the blue Inuksugait building around mid-morning. By the time they got there, the sprinkler system had extinguished any flames.

"If it wasn't in place, it would have been a much different situation," said Capt. Walter Oliver of the Iqaluit Fire Department.

"We would have been looking at going in there and fighting an active fire in what essentially for us is a highrise building. So we didn't have to get into that because the sprinkler system did a grand job."

Crews quickly moved everybody out of the building.

Oliver said there was some smoke damage, and more serious water damage from the sprinklers. The water made it from the fourth floor to the ground floor.

Nobody was injured.

InFebruary, two people were killed in Iqaluit whena townhouse complex burned to the ground. Another apartment buildingwas destroyed by firein March 2011.