Solvent-like smell probed at Yellowknife building

Last Updated: Monday, January 17, 2011 | 2:20 PM CST

CBC News

Emergency trucks parked outside Beck Court on Monday morning. The Yellowknife apartment building was evacuated around 5 a.m. MT amid concerns about a strong solvent-like smell on the second floor. (CBC)

Tenants of a Yellowknife apartment complex were allowed to return to their units late Monday morning, after emergency crews spent several hours investigating a strong chemical smell in the building.

RCMP and the Yellowknife Fire Division evacuated 100 Beck Court around 5 a.m. MT, after they confirmed reports of a "strong odour" on the building's second floor.

The fire division's hazardous-materials team identified the smell in a part of the hallway on the second floor, but it could not pinpoint the source of the odour, Deputy Chief Jason Davidson said.

"I would say it was definitely a solvent, a paint thinner-type smell … and that's why we were a little bit more concerned [than we would] with just a diesel exhaust-type smell, where we could just ventilate and it would go away," Davidson told CBC News.

"We tried to ventilate the units. The smell went away, but as soon as we turned the ventilation off the smell was back again."

Tenants were relocated to École St. Joseph School when Beck Court was evacuated. Fire crews and the apartment building's management allowed tenants to return to their units around 11 a.m.

Davidson said the smell in the hallway is not entering people's units. If it does, he recommends that tenants turn on the hood fans over their stoves.

Management at Beck Court is taking measures to clean the hallway, Davidson said, adding that fire crews will return if the odour becomes stronger.

Beck Court is a 64-unit apartment building located off Williams Avenue in Yellowknife's Frame Lake South area, near Old Airport Road. It is owned by Shelter Canadian Properties Ltd.