Thousands of residents are rushing to evacuate the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories as more than 200 fires burn, leaving many to face dangerous road conditions or stand in line for hours for desperately needed emergency flights. Evacuations were also under way in British Columbia.
The Northwest Territories capital Yellowknife – home to about 20,000 – and several other Northwest Territories communities have been ordered to evacuate as crews battle 236 active wildfires, and a massive fire creeps toward the city and a major highway.
The infernos in the Northwest Territories are among more than 1,000 fires burning across Canada as the country endures its worst fire season on record. Smoke from the fires has drifted into the US, bringing harmful pollution and worsening air quality.
As of Friday evening, about 19,000 Yellowknife residents have been evacuated due to threats from wildfires, according to an estimate from the city’s mayor.
“The evacuation has been a huge success,” Mayor Rebecca Alty said in a press conference Friday evening. “We’ve managed to basically evacuate the whole city by now.”
The fire complex is about 15 km (9.3 mi) outside Yellowknife’s boundaries and hasn’t progressed much in the past couple of days, according to Mike Westwick, a wildfire information officer for the Northwest Territories.
“This fire could be much closer right now if we didn’t have those successful days of suppression and a little bit of help from weather,” Westwick said.
“A couple good days does not mean we’re out of the woods at all, so to speak,” he added. “We’ve still got a long way to go here.”
A little rain was possible but strong northwest and west-northwest winds could push the fire to the outskirts of Yellowknife by the weekend, according to a Facebook post from a government fire-monitoring account.
The Canadian government has deployed “significant military assets” to assist with air evacuations and firefighting efforts in the Northwest Territories, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a news conference in Edmonton on Friday night.
“We’re coordinating the air evacuations, we’re making sure that we’re there to respond to all the needs of community now and will be there in the coming months and years as we look to keep people safe moving forward, even as we rebuild in places where there are terrible losses,” Trudeau said.
At a separate news briefing, Canadian leaders pledged no one would be left behind during the unprecedented evacuation from Yellowknife and getting residents out safely would continue through the weekend.
“We’ll continue to focus on helping the most vulnerable and will be there for as long as it takes,” Defense Minister Bill Blair said.
While most were encouraged to leave via the only road out of the community, as many as 5,000 residents had requested flights out of the city.
Smoke continues to shroud Yellowknife, as it has for weeks, but an unpredictable wind and a raging fire forced officials to order a complete evacuation.
However, federal officials said they were confident they could continue to protect the majority of the community from fire damage and are working on building fire breaks by clearing trees and applying fire retardant.
More than 29,500 people – approximately 65% of the Northwest Territories’ population – are currently under evacuation orders, according to a spokesperson from the Northwest Territories’ Cabinet.
Military assisting with airlifts
The Canadian Armed Forces are assisting with firefighting and airlifting efforts in the Northwest Territories. The Royal Canadian Air Force has deployed several planes and helicopters to support regional emergency crews.
The first CAF aircraft, a CC-130 J Hercules, conducted an evacuation flight Thursday and transported 79 passengers to Edmonton, the CAF said. Additional flights are scheduled for Friday.
Source: CNN
