Inuvik wildfire shows ‘little growth’ as of Sunday afternoon

NWT Fire says a wildfire 12 km east of Inuvik showed “little growth” overnight into Sunday and an evacuation notice has not been escalated.

A little rain fell in Inuvik on Saturday but, for a time, there was confusion over the town’s evacuation readiness level.

“Yesterday’s suppression operations on the southwest flank were successful, and the line worked by the crews remains cool,” NWT Fire stated at noon on Sunday.

An assessment on Saturday evening suggested the fire’s southern area is “smouldering with only small flames,” the wildfire agency stated.

Crews, helicopters and tankers will continue to work on the head of the fire once visibility improves on Sunday.

“Smoke will continue to impact visibility as the fire is creeping through the lichen, but cooler weather and the potential for rain should help crews,” NWT Fire stated.

On Saturday evening, the Town of Inuvik took pains on Saturday evening to stress that it remains on evacuation notice, with no alert and no order issued.

Confusion arose after the town shared a Saturday NWT Fire update, posted to the NWT government’s website, that used the phrase “read the alert” when linking to the town’s earlier notice.

By Saturday evening, the town’s newspaper had published an online article initially headlined “Inuvik now Level 2 evacuation advisory” and the town, already facing criticism over perceived confusion on Friday, felt obliged to issue what it called an “important clarification” just before 9:30pm on Saturday.

“There IS NO INCREASED RISK to the community,” the town’s fire department wrote on Facebook, deploying capital letters for emphasis.

“Our advisory has not changed.”

Rain fell in Inuvik on Saturday, a development that had earlier led the town to lift its fire ban and speculate that conditions might help crews fighting fire EV014 to the east.