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Fire breaks out at Iqaluit construction site

A small fire broke out at a construction site Wednesday evening in Iqaluit. The fire was at the lot where Nunastar is building apartment units after many were destroyed in the White Row building fire in 2012.

Blaze was on same lot as former White Row building, which burned down in 2012

Iqaluit firefighters spray stacks of insulation that caught fire at a construction site Wednesday evening. (CBC)

A small fire broke out at a construction site Wednesday evening in Iqaluit.

The Iqaluit Fire Department got a call from a resident at about 7 p.m. The fire was contained to stacks of insulation.

"Once we arrived, once the flames were knocked down, what we wanted to do is remove the combustibles. I wanted to make sure we reduce the loss as minimal as possible, so I had the forklift help me move out the bales so we could stop the spread of fire," said Luc Grandmaison, Iqaluit’s fire chief.

About 15 firefighters were at the scene, and it took about 30 minutes to put out the fire.

Nunastar owns the property. It’s building new apartment units on the lot, which is the same lot where the White Row building once was. That building burned down in March 2012, leaving two people dead and 22 units destroyed.

RCMP are investigating the fire.