Residents flee as wildfire approaches capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories

YELLOWKNIFE, (AP):

Residents of the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories fled an approaching wildfire Thursday, some driving hundreds of miles to safety and others signing up for emergency flights, the latest chapter in Canada’s worst fire season on record.

The fire, boosted by strong northern winds, was within 16 kilometres (10 miles) of Yellowknife’s northern edge, and people in the four areas at highest risk were told to leave as soon as possible, Fire Information Officer Mike Westwick said.

Officials worried the winds could push the flames toward the highway needed for evacuation from the city of 20,000, and, although some rain was forecast, first responders were taking no chances. Westwick urged residents in other areas to leave by noon Friday.

“I want to be clear that the city is not in immediate danger and there’s a safe window for residents to leave the city by road and by air,” Shane Thompson, a government minister for the Territories, told a news conference. “Without rain, it is possible it will reach the city outskirts by the weekend.”

Canada has seen a record number of wildfires this year — contributing to choking smoke in parts of the US — with more than 5,700 fires burning more than 137,000 square kilometres (53,000 square miles), according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. As of Thursday, 1,053 wildfires were burning across the country, more than half of them out of control.

In the Northwest Territories alone, 268 wildfires have already burned more than 21,000 square kilometres (8,100 square miles).

About 6,800 people in eight other communities in the territory have already been forced to evacuate their homes, including the small community of Enterprise, where the town was largely destroyed. Officials said everyone made it out alive.

A woman whose family evacuated the town of Hay River on Sunday told the CBC that their vehicle began melting as they drove through embers, the front window cracked and the vehicle began filling with smoke that made it difficult to see the road ahead.

“I was obviously scared the tyre was going to break, our car was going to catch on fire and then it went from just embers to full smoke,” Lisa Mundy, who was travelling with her husband and their six-year-old and 18-month-old children, told the CBC. She said they called 911 after they drove into the ditch a couple of times.

She told the CBC her son kept saying: “I don’t want to die, Mommy.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was convening an urgent meeting with ministers and senior officials Thursday, to discuss the evacuation.

The authorities said the intensive care unit at a Yellowknife hospital would close within 24 hours as the Northwest Territories health authority starts to reduce its services. In-patient units from Stanton Territorial Hospital would be moved in the coming days, if required, and most long-term care patients were transferred to institutions to the south, the Health and Social Services Authority said on its website.