‘Surreal is the word’: Iqaluit newspaper staff cover fire in their own building

IQALUIT, Nunavut – A fire in Iqaluit has severely damaged a building that housed several businesses, including a weekly newspaper serving Nunavut.

City fire crews responded to the blaze just after 8 a.m. Tuesday.

The building was the home of Nunatsiaq News, a newspaper that has been in operation since 1973 and is published every Friday. It has three staff members in the Nunavut capital.

Nobody was injured, but staff of the paper wound up in the unusual situation of writing about themselves.

“Surreal is the word that keeps coming to mind all day. It was our assistant publisher’s first reaction. It was mine. The reporter who was on the ground outside of his own office felt surreal as well,” said managing editor Corey Larocque, who is based in Ottawa.

“The idea that you’re covering a fire is not that uncommon, but the idea that it’s your own workplace is a surreal experience that reporters wouldn’t encounter very much,” he added.

“Journalists try so hard not to make themselves the centre of the story and here we were the centre of a big story, a big fire in Iqaluit.”

City officials said by late Tuesday afternoon, the fire had been extinguished except for some residual steam still rising.

The site will remain under watch until cleanup begins Wednesday.

The cause of the blaze is still under investigation. One engine truck, one ladder truck, two ambulances, two command vehicles and three municipal enforcement vehicles responded.

“A building on fire in Iqaluit is a story any day of the week. When it’s your own building, of course it’s a much bigger, much different story,” said Larocque.

Laroque said reporter Dave Lochead was scheduled to cover city council but informed the team on Slack something was happening.

“About 8:30 he said, ‘Change of plans. I just got a text that our building’s on fire.’ That’s what started an unusual day.”

Laroque said the building appears to be levelled, but the next edition of the paper should come out as planned.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 26, 2024.

— By Bill Graveland in Calgary