Evacuees from Yellowknife, territorial capital of the Northwest Territories, make their way along highway 3, at the edge of a burned forest, on their way into Ft. Providence, N.W.T., Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023.Bill Braden/The Canadian Press
The fires threatening Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, are no longer expected to reach the city this weekend, although officials cautioned evacuees against returning to the area.
Conditions favoured firefighters late in the week with weather stations near the Yellowknife, Ingraham Trail, and Dettah fires measuring small amounts of rain.
The Yellowknife blaze was 15 kilometres northwest of the municipal boundary Saturday afternoon, according to Mike Westwick, a fire information officer for NWT. It was 17 km away when officials ordered everyone out of the city Wednesday evening. At the time, the fire had the potential to lick the city’s edges by the weekend.
“It is now unlikely this fire would reach the outskirts of Yellowknife by the end of the weekend due to the slightly cooler-than-forecast conditions, help from rain, and successful firefighting efforts,” Mr. Westwick said in an update Saturday. “This is good news, but there are still tough, hot, dry, windy days ahead.”
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NWT plans to do infrared scanning Sunday to determine whether it is safe for crews to directly attack the fire on the ground. So far, the fire has been burning so intensely that teams have not been able to directly attack it from the ground.
While this would be positive, Mr. Westwick stressed it should not be viewed as a turning point.
“It might feel like things have changed pretty quickly here,” he said in an interview. “But this is the reality of unfolding emergency situations. Sometimes you get some good luck and you make some progress.
“But it is important to not get ahead of ourselves,” he said. “You win or lose based on weather.”
Canada Task Force 2, an all-hazards disaster response team dedicated to emergency response, incident management, and urban search-and-rescue, will send another eight people to Yellowknife on Sunday, the City of Calgary said in a statement. Ten members deployed earlier this week.
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NWT officials, on Aug. 16, ordered Yellowknife’s 22,000 residents to leave by Aug. 18 at noon, either by air or the lone highway south. Other communities, including Hay River and Fort Smith, had evacuated earlier in the week. Most NWT evacuees headed to Alberta, and Calgary said it had capacity to absorb 5,000 displaced people. Alberta’s largest city hit that mark Friday, so Yellowknife’s evacuation flights are now landing in Winnipeg.
Manitoba, in a statement, said the first evacuation flight from Yellowknife, carrying 15 people, arrived early Saturday morning. Evacuees, the statement said, were transported to a reception centre then to hotel accommodations.
Rebecca Alty, Yellowknife’s mayor, said evacuation flights to Winnipeg continued Saturday afternoon. Yellowknife officials on Friday estimated about 2,600 people remained in the city, including about 1,000 essential personnel.
“Last night was probably my best sleep all week,” Ms. Alty said in an interview Saturday afternoon. “Huge relief having the majority of the community safely evacuated.”
Wildfires have forced officials to evacuate multiple NWT communities, including Hay River, Enterprise, Jean Marie River, the K’atl’odeeche First Nation, during this year’s extraordinary hot and dry summer. The mass exodus largely wrapped up Friday.
When asked whether she was concerned that wildfires in British Columbia, which have torched some neighbourhoods around Lake Okanagan and triggered mass evacuations in the area, will siphon resources away from NWT, Ms. Alty said: “I think we’re in a good position right now. We have what we need right now. But an hour from now could be different.”
Visibility around Yellowknife was good Saturday afternoon, allowing crews to fight fires with helicopters and airtankers. Temperatures are expected to climb Sunday, with winds from the west. This will lead to increased fire activity.
The Yellowknife fire has consumed 166,946 hectares.
Nelson Johnson, Yellowknife’s fire chief, said his department has spent weeks preparing for the possibility flames will encroach on the capital city.
Yellowknife’s fire department has been strategizing with wildland firefighters and other officials in NWT’s department of Environment and Climate Change, Mr. Johnson said in a news conference Friday evening. The city’s firefighters, he said, have been briefed on the tactics the department will deploy if flames breach Yellowknife’s defences.
“We’ve got our orientations done. We know where the sprinklers are. We’ve been monitoring how all the pumps work,” Mr. Johnson said. “We’ve got our plans set up so that we can go out there and handle any spot fires that do come over that fireguard.”
The department has 70 firefighters on standby, working 24 hours on, 24 hours off. They are patrolling the community in fire trucks, scanning for incidents.
“We’re well-prepared,” Mr. Johnson said. He stressed that firefighters will be better able to protect the city if residents leave because it means there’s fewer people to worry about and respond to.
“We hope that you heed the words and do go out and evacuate.”
The Ingraham Trail fire was last mapped at 50,101 hectares, according to NWT’s Saturday update. It is unlikely to reach the Ingraham Trail within the next two days given the forecasted winds, firefighting efforts, and pinch of rain, according to the update.
The small amount of rain the area received is expected to evaporate Saturday afternoon, thanks to high winds, the update said. This fire has destroyed three structure so far.
The Dettah fire has burned 48,961 hectares and, as of Saturday, is 29 kilometres southeast of the First Nations community it is named after.
— with a report rom The Canadian Press
Resources for N.W.T. residents:
- N.W.T. residents who need to evacuate can register here. Information for evacuees can be found here.
- Territorial wildfire updates can be found here. Report smoke or fire by calling 1-877-698-3473.
- Emergency response resources can be found here.
- The latest community statuses, including notices, alerts and orders, can be found here.
Carrie Tait