Yellowknife's Wildcat Caf closed for repairs after fire

Yellowknife's Wildcat Caf is closed for repairs after a firebroke out while the restaurant was full of staff and customers.

The restaurant, which opens every summer, is housed in a mining-camp style log cabin built in the 1930s. The fire broke out around 6 p.m. last Thursday.

"We were full. We had brought oysters and an oyster shucker up from Victoria for a big special event," said chef Niki Mckenzie.

"There was a smell of smoke, but there's been so much wildfire smoke anyway that it was quite hard to determine where the smoke smell was coming from."

Then the fire alarm went off.

"That's when we noticed smoke coming from a vent under the building and out of the walls and that's when I got my front of house team to move everyone out of the restaurant," Mckenzie said.

In a news release last week, the City of Yellowknife said fire crews who attended the scene determined that the fire was inside the wall in the mechanical room.

It said crews opened up the wall to put out the fire.It added no injuries were reported, and the major damage was confined to one area of the building. Mckenzie said she was allowed back in around 12 p.m. Friday to assess the damage and begin repairs.

When crews cut into the building, Mckenzie said, they ended up cutting the water line so it now needs repairs. The propane is also shut off.

"No stove, no cooking, no water as of right now. But the city is working very quickly to try and get everything back up and running again," Mckenzie said, calling the city an "incredible" landlord.

A crew came in over the weekend and scrubbed the walls to help remove the smoke smell from inside the building, Mckenzie said.

Despite the setback, Mckenzie said she wants to reopen the restaurant as soon as possible. She and her staff are devastated that their summer season, which was set to conclude at the end of September, could be cut short.

"I want to keep exploring the food and the flavours of the North and I want to keep being an active member of this community," she said.

"Despite all setbacks, I am still here and I am still planning on staying."