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NWT Highway 7 has closed at the border with British Columbia due to wildfires in northern BC, while highways near the Alberta border are also closed.
Highway 7’s closure was announced late on Friday morning. Alberta Highway 35’s closure appeared on the 511 Alberta traffic website at 5:30pm the same day, and NWT Highway 1 was closed from Enterprise to the border by 7:30pm.
“Highway 35 between Township Road 1172A (Zama City access) and the Alberta / Northwest Territories border, north of High Level, is closed due to a wildfire burning near the provincial border,” 511 Alberta stated.
Highway 35 connects to NWT Highway 1 and is the only road link from the territory to southern Alberta. The NWT’s Department of Infrastructure said it was extending the closure from the border to Enterprise on the NWT side “due to an active wildfire near the AB/NT border.”
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NWT Fire forecast a “major wind event” on Friday that had been expected to make fighting fires in the region challenging. The MV Lafferty ferry outside Fort Simpson was suspended because of wind just before noon before reopening in the afternoon. Various wildfires began in the Dehcho and South Slave regions.
Earlier, rural areas north and east of Fort Nelson in northern BC were placed on evacuation alert because of nearby wildfires. Northern Rockies Regional Municipality issued the alert on Thursday evening.
To the north, crews in the NWT were separately tackling another wildfire southwest of Fort Liard, which was placed on evacuation notice on Friday afternoon.
Fire FS002 is about 22 km from the hamlet, NWT Fire said on Friday, and firefighters were expected to spend the day trying to limit its growth toward the hamlet (it’s on the far side of the river from the community) in forecast strong winds.
Sprinklers have been set in Fort Liard as a precaution, NWT Fire stated.
