Family and friends from across Canada were in Whitehorse this weekend to remember five people who died of what is believed to be carbon monoxide poisoning.

Hundreds of people packed into the gymnasium of Vanier Secondary Catholic School on Saturday for a memorial for the Rusk family, originally from Alberta, and their close friend Donald McNamee, originally from Ontario.

They were found dead in their home in Whitehorse's Porter Creek neighbourhood last weekend.

Gabriel Rusk, 13, attended the school; his 11-year-old sister Rebekah went to Holy Family Elementary School in another part of the city.

One by one, students hung hand-made leaves marked with personal messages on a tree. One classmate, Emily Ross, sang a new song she had written to help deal with the loss.

Valerie, Bradley, Gabriel and Rebekah Rusk, and family friend Donald McNamee, were found dead in their Porter Creek home last weekend. Fire officials jave said carbon monoxide levels in the house were 10 times higher than what would have set off a detector. (CBC)

"I think there's nothing more heartbreaking than to see a child in pain, and we've seen a lot of kids in a lot of pain this week," said the school's principal, Katrina Brogdon.

Brogdon said the healing will take time.

Family friends remember the children as always wanting to help others, just like their parents Valerie and Bradley, who took in McNamee after he became friends with the father.

The family did not have a carbon monoxide detector in their rented home, and there is nothing in the Canadian Building Code that requires older houses to have the detectors.

Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloski said the tragedy could become part of a review of the Landlord and Tenants Act. He said he'd have to wait for the investigation to conclude before saying more on the issue.

A legislative review has tabled its report and now it's up to the government to bring it before the legislature.

CBC News has traced the ownership of the rented home to a numbered company controlled by Geri Tuton, who is a special assistant to the premier. She has declined any comment.