Fire destroyed a $170,000-home in Old Crow Monday afternoon, leaving some unattended children badly shaken.

The house is a write-off, Cpl. Paul Thalhofer of the Old Crow RCMP detachment told the Star today.

When Thalhofer arrived at the house after hearing the community's emergency air raid-type siren, half the village's residents were already there working to extinguish the blaze, he said.

'There's nothing suspicious; probably just some kids playing around with some matches,' Thalhofer said.

Trace Rispin-Kassi and her two daughters and son lived in the house.

The father, Danny Kassi, is Old Crow's fire chief.

Thalhofer said a fire marshal was scheduled to arrive today to inspect the blackened remains of the home.

'We're just covering all the bases,' the corporal said.

Police know the fire started on the porch and suspect the unattended children were playing with fire and mosquito coils.

� 'With fires, you can never be 100-per-cent sure but we speculate that it was the kids.'

Thalhofer said the children have not been interviewed yet because they are still recovering from the trauma of suddenly losing their home.

'They were pretty shook up yesterday .'

If there is any message in this sad event, it is 'Maybe kids need to be a little better supervised,' said Thalhofer.

The officer spoke to the insurance company representative today and is assured that as soon as the fire marshal is finished with his inspection, the remains of the house can be knocked down and rebuilt.

'Hopefully we'll have something up before winter,' said Thalhofer, noting there is already a shortage of housing in Old Crow.

He's not worried about the family, though.

'I've never seen something where it didn't work out; they won't be stuck out on the streets, that's for sure.

'We don't have these things very often in Old Crow but when we do, everybody pitches in.'

Clothing, dishes and money have all been donated.

'All that stuff comes from other community members, to get the family back on their feet again. It's pretty quick,' Thalhofer said.

'It's just property damage; the potential for these kids to get hurt is very real. It's lucky that we didn't have any injuries.'

Donna Frost, with the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, said today there has already been a fundraiser for the family in Inuvik, N.W.T.

Major fires in the quiet community 1,000 kilometres north of Whitehorse are rare but memorable.

The village lost its school in a pre-Christmas fire in 1981. The school that was subsequently built with materials hauled in over a special winter road suffered a similar fate in the mid-1990s.

Old Crow is accessible only by air or water.