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Yellowknife has activated a local state of emergency – which is not an evacuation alert or order, but gives the city enhanced powers – after a wildfire west of the city broke through a containment line set by firefighters.
Throughout Monday, we brought you information here as we got it, tracking continued efforts to protect communities and the remaining people in them, plus the safety and wellbeing of evacuees in Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray and elsewhere.
Hundreds of people were airlifted to safety in flights that took place through the night and represented the largest rescue operation in the territory’s history.
Updates appear below, the most recent first. All times are in MT.
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22:04 – We’re going to close this live down for the night, unless anything breaking wakes us up.
I’m going to drop the link to the NWT Wildfires Safety Check Facebook page here once more, as there are still lots of people both marking themselves as safe and looking for updates on their friends and family.
21:27 – Emily and I appreciate the love from everyone in our inboxes, but let’s not forget about everyone else at Cabin Radio.
There’s also the rest of the reporting team – Chloe, who is our climate change reporter; Aastha, who just joined us and will be focusing on the NWT’s small communities; and Emma, our other intern – who are working on some other stories we’ll share soon!
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Also, big thank you to our on-air hosts Scott, Jesse, Megan (who also doubles as a reporter sometimes), and intern Sam for keeping the music going and sharing wildfire updates on-air. Same goes for our specialty show host volunteers.
And AJ, our general manager, who spent today supporting everyone – for example, he went out and bought Ollie his requested megaphone.
21:00 – I just counted and it looks like we’ve published 18 stories today, or 19 if you include this live.
Let’s recap, because a lot has happened. We started off the day with photos people across the South Slave and Dehcho sent in of their harrowing evacuations. Later, we saw the first photos of Enterprise after the fire tore through it, and at the end of the day we received even more photos.
In the morning, people in Jean Marie River, Fort Smith, and Hay River were reported safe while communications were still down.
Since then, Fort Smith first responders left in the town moved their operations bases as it was no longer safe to remain. We’ll be watching what happens in Fort Smith as closely as we can tonight.
In the North Slave, we wrote about how crews are working to contain a breach of the Behchokǫ̀ wildfire, about a Highway 3 evacuation as the fire reached Boundary Creek, what Yellowknife is doing to protect the city, and how declaring a state of emergency will help Yellowknife.
Aurora College’s fall semester and the final sitting of the 19th Assembly were delayed.
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Stanton Legacy opened early to accommodate patients from Fort Smith and Hay River.
Down in Grande Prairie, we heard about how things were going at the evacuation centre, and up in Paulatuk the hamlet came together to sing Amazing Grace for wildfire-hit communities.
Lastly, at a news conference, territorial officials urged people to follow evacuation orders.
20:35 – Ollie’s off to get some sleep so Sarah will running this live until 10pm.
Highway 3 is once again open, although this could change with little or no warning. Remember to check the Highway Conditions Map before heading anywhere.
20:32 – Ollie’s report from the city’s council meeting and evening media briefing is now available here, explaining how declaring a state of emergency is expected to help Yellowknife defend itself against wildfires.
20:01 – Thank you for sending emails of encouragement and setting up monthly Cabin Radio donations throughout the day (if you’d rather do a one-off donation talk to AJ, our general manager – all help means the world to us). You guys are the best and we are proud to report on your behalf. We hope every one of you is safe and doing OK. Also, thanks for the snacks. They are keeping me going tonight.
One tiny request: every time someone starts an email “Ollie and team,” about five other people shove a fresh needle into a tiny voodoo doll of me. If someone wants to lead off with a “Sarah and team” or an “Emily and team” you would do me the power of good in this newsroom, I’m just sayin’. This has been a huge team effort and Emily and Sarah, in particular, have not stopped all day long.
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19:59 – Evacuation centre managers in Grande Prairie are encouraging evacuees to head to a different facility, outside Edmonton, as spaces fill up. Here’s more from Sarah.
19:43 – From now on, we’ll be running need-to-know updates and new articles as a priority in this live page. Mostly, we’ll try to give our staff a bit of time to recharge before we run the same live coverage starting first thing tomorrow.
That means I’ll still be here monitoring things, but getting on with other stuff. If something important happens, you’ll see it here.
We’ll close down this live coverage at 10pm tonight and pick it up before 6am tomorrow. Breaking news overnight will of course be covered as soon as we can get to it.
19:28 – We now have many more images of the devastation in Enterprise. Please be warned that if this is your community, some of these images may be distressing.
19:21 – Outside Hay River, a massive operation is under way to widen a fire break between the fire and the community. No more planes are due today, the town said, but some are expected tomorrow.
By the sound of it, there’s not much intel right now about what the fire did today.
19:18 – Here’s what we learned from the Yellowknife media briefing:
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- If the city has defined trigger points for an evacuation notice, alert and order, it doesn’t want to publicize them yet. The city suggested it’s more that those points will be determined based on fire behaviour rather than preset distances.
- If anyone has done any planning for a South Slave-esque airlift as a last resort, they do not yet wish to discuss it. (Officials are keen not to worry people, understandably, and keen to stress they believe Yellowknife is nowhere near that point and not threatened right now.)
- There is some acknowledgement that options for clean air in the city right now are not great. The library is probably your best bet.
- Expect to see the military, NWT firefighters, Yellowknife firefighters and contractors all out building firebreaks. It is work worth multiple millions of dollars, we are told.
There needs to be a review of how things like fire breaks are handled, the mayor says, because it can’t all be “left up to the municipality.” Staff say how this protective work is organized and carried out (and paid for) is a nationwide issue that needs to be examined.
19:09 – Excuse me while I wolf down a turkey sandwich that was great seven hours ago and turns out to still be a 6/10 now.
19:07 – Lots to catch up on. The media briefing was live-streamed, it turns out, so you can watch it back if you want.
18:49 – Hard to ask questions and update this. Will have a full debrief for you shortly.
18:28 – We’re now heading into a media briefing with the city for 30 minutes.
18:20 – Three city councillors say this the first local state of emergency in Yellowknife’s history.
18:14 – The state of emergency passes unanimously and is in effect for seven days, at which point it must be either renewed or ended.
18:13 – Councillor Steve Payne says Yellowknife has “lots of amateur lumberjacks” who might be prepared to help out, and asks if people might be needed to volunteer.
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“We’re not at that point yet but we may want to consider that in the future,” says Bassi-Kellett.
(If you’re standing there revving a chainsaw in dismay at this answer, I am pretty sure you can find neighbours who’ll let you aggressively firesmart.)
18:12 – Get your prized personal possessions and documents together, city staff say. Just in case.
18:11 – There was a reference at this meeting just now to Thursday being forecast as a day of rain. That’s true across much of the territory: Thursday looks like being wet, which could be a huge help if communities can hang on that long. However, as we all know, forecasts change. Here’s the Cabin Radio weather page, which lets you see how the rain is expected to push across the NWT in just over two days’ time.
18:08 – Boundary Creek is km 306 of the highway (Yellowknife is at around km 336.) “That was the trigger point we wanted to use for a state of local emergency,” says Bassi-Kellett.
18:06 – This is not an evacuation notice, alert or order, Mayor Rebecca Alty confirms.
18:05 – “At this point in time we are looking to mobilize every bit of heavy equipment that we can,” says Bassi-Kellett, adding that ECC “sees the line at the Sand Pits as a very important line of defence.”
18:04 – Sheila Bassi-Kellett, city manager, says there have been “a lot of developments over the course of the afternoon.” Bassi-Kellett said ECC expressed “a little bit of concern around the fire jumping Boundary Creek, and that had happened. That is something we do take quite seriously.”
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17:59 – A reminder that we expect the city to declare a state of emergency at this meeting. Remember that the GNWT, within the past two hours, said a state of emergency at territorial level wasn’t necessary because the territory is getting everything it needs.
17:53 – The city’s special meeting about a state of emergency is a few minutes away from starting. I’m going to assume they will live-stream it here. I’ll pick out important updates.
17:45 – Nothing bad has happened for at least four minutes.
17:34 – I’m conscious that this live text isn’t exactly a barrel of laughs right now but I can tell you my colleague Megan drove past Jean Marie River this afternoon and reported heavy, sustained rain for some of that drive. That’s something, right?
Right?
17:31 – A United Way NWT committee met earlier this afternoon with urgent wildfire evacuee funding requests expected to come in. Organizations in need of funding should apply on the United Way NWT website (you can also donate there).
17:29 – Reminder that as far as I’m aware, we still have a territory-wide issue where Telus phones cannot call land lines.
17:28 – Internet is back in Norman Wells, Tulita, Délı̨nę, Fort Good Hope, Wrigley and Fort Simpson, I’m told.
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17:26 – This is the latest satellite hot-spot imagery.
Yellowknife:
Hay River:
Fort Smith:
17:21 – I don’t want the importance of some of that Fort Smith update to be lost. It sounds quite last-ditch in tone. Example:
“One of the last remaining tactics for protecting the community are landscape-level ignition operations where fire specialists bring the fire to large holding features including Highway 5, dozer guards, and the airport lands,” a Parks Canada spokesperson said. “In order to do this safely, we need to ensure that no one remains in the vicinity of the communities.”
17:18 – Here’s my colleague Sarah’s full story on Fort Smith first responders temporarily relocating their operations bases to Fort Chipewyan and Salt Mountain.
17:17 – The Fort Smith Health Centre is closed until further notice as the town evacuates some first responders who are not considered essential to firefighting efforts out of the community by air.
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The only people staying (at relocated operations bases) will help support ignition operations, structural protection, and containment.
“Planning is currently under way to establish a mobile paramedic service to address basic health needs in the community and for first responders until services can be re-established at the health centre. Emergency services personnel in community will be able to reach the paramedic by radio while communication infrastructure outages continue,” the health authority stated.
17:14 – This is what a state of emergency does in legislation.
17:10 – Sheila Bassi-Kellett, city manager, says some local contractors need a state of emergency to be active before they can agree to be pulled off their existing work and be reassigned to fire protection. That’s why the state of emergency is being triggered.
17:08 – “They’re going to activate a local state of emergency but it doesn’t mean an evacuation order or evacuation alert is coming. It just means we’ll be able to have more powers like acquiring private property,” says Mayor Rebecca Alty, who just appeared in council chambers to explain more. When she says “they” she means city council.
17:06 – This is Ollie at City Hall, where we’ve just been told the city’s 5:15pm media briefing will now take place after a special council meeting at 6pm.
My understanding is that city council will discuss declaring a local state of emergency. That doesn’t mean an evacuation, it’s a mechanism that would allow the city to access (and, I believe, commandeer if need be) more resources.
But we’ll find out more shortly. I ain’t moving from City Hall till we know what’s going on. Don’t go anywhere, updates will appear here.
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16:57 – From Wood Buffalo National Park’s fire information officer:
“Due to limited critical resources in the community of Fort Smith, first responders from Parks Canada, Alberta Wildfire, the Government of the Northwest Territories, and the municipality of Fort Smith will be required to temporarily relocate their bases of operations. The safety of the public and first responders is everyone’s top priority.”
16:51 – The GNWT news conference just wrapped up. Emily will have a story on it soon. Ollie will take this live back over at 5:15pm when the City of Yellowknife starts its news conference.
The city is planning to try and livestream the news conference on Facebook – we’ll share that link with you if they do.
16:47 – “Right now, we have not heard of any loss of life,” says Minister Thompson confirms.
16:45 – The GNWT can’t confirm anything in regard to the fire in Enterprise until its incident command team is able to get into the community.
“We haven’t brought in our assessors in there because it’s not safe right yet,” says Minister Thompson. “And once they go in, then we’ll know … but it’s it’s not looking good right now.”
16:42 – “The City [of Yellowknife] has trigger points and where things are, where notices, alerts and evacuations … And as the information comes in, then they decide where the trigger point is. And ECC (Department of Environment and Climate Change) does give recommendations to the city,” says ECC Minister Thompson.
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16:38 – “The amount of time that that it takes to evacuate a location certainly plays into the kinds of recommendations and the ways that we think about how to manage the fire and what potential impacts that could have to a community,” says Mike Westwick, the GNWT’s wildfire information officer.
16:35 – Approximately 15 percent of the NWT population is currently under an evacuation order, the GNWT says. Once again that’s all of Fort Smith, Hay River, Enterprise, Kakisa, and Jean Marie River.
16:33 – True North FM asks how many firefighters are currently active in the NWT. The answer is 34-four person crews from the NWT, 60 firefighters from South Africa, 100 military firefighters starting Tuesday, and upwards of 200 extra auxiliary firefighters the GNWT can pull from.
16:29 – The Globe and Mail asked about the number of evacuees and number of people who were ordered to evacuate that haven’t yet. The GNWT’s Jennifer Young, who works with the Emergency Management Organization, said so far there are 485 evacuees who have registered in Grande Prairie, “but beyond that we don’t have confirmed numbers because the situation is still evolving.”
16:25 – “The problem is that this last the fire that happened is unprecedented Mother Nature. It didn’t matter if we had a million crews there, that fire … travelled 75 kilometres in a day. It’s unprecedented. You know, it’s unheard of – 50 to 80 km/hr winds. So these are some of the challenges that we’re facing,” says Minister Thompson.
16:23 – CBC asks when Northwestel infrastructure in Enterprise will be repaired.
“We have confirmed that our fibre was damaged as a result of wildfire activity. We don’t have access to the community as of yet. When allowed … we will be getting into the community to do a more hands on walkthrough but as of right now we know that the fire was then the fire damage the fibre and that caused the telecommunication services to get knocked offline,” says Imran Khan with Northwestel.
16:20 – CKLB is asking about how the GNWT plans to get critical information out to people given the multitude of telecommunications disruptions. Premier Cochrane says on Sunday, people went around communities knocking on doors as a last resort.
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“It’s really important for residents to to realize when we call a notice of evacuation, get ready. That means it’s pretty high probability you’re going to be evacuated. And when we call the evacuation, don’t wait – please leave the community.
“One of the biggest problems we have through all of these community fires is that people that stay and then we have to divert our attention from actually fighting the fires to evacuating people out of town via air planes.”
16:16 – The 2014 wildfire season cost the NWT over $50 million.
“We’re going to be over that this year,” says Minister Thompson, though they won’t have a total until the end of the fire season.
16:14 – We just asked what would trigger a state of emergency in the NWT.
Minister Shane Thompson says, “The state of emergency is if we’re not able to get the the tools, the equipment we need, but I can tell you right now, the departments are working within the Government of Northwest Territories, the Government of Canada and businesses, and private industry has been working together.
All it has been is a phone call and they’ve been able to do it. So at this point, in time, a state of emergency would not do anything but cause more stress to people in the Northwest Territories.”
15:59 – An updated evacuation order for Highway 3, in full from NWT Fire:
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“The Evacuation Order for Highway 3 has been extended to KM 320 due to the overnight expansion of the breach of the Behchoko/Yellowknife Fire (ZF015)’s established lines to the east, and the fact the fire has reached Boundary Creek.
Proceed to Yellowknife as soon as you can. Drive safely – visibility is extremely bad. Follow any directions and signage on the ground. Highway staff will let those leave who are still in the area. Yellowknife and N’Dilo are not currently at risk. The fire is slightly less than 30km to the northwest of Yellowknife.
15:58 – The GNWT press conference starts in two minutes. Sarah will bring you the highlights here while Emily will be working on the full story.
15:45 – People in Paulatuk sang Amazing Grace as they offered prayers for wildfire-hit communities, Aaron Ruben said, sending us this footage.
15:38 – Highways update: Highway 3 is closed right now west of Yellowknife, Highway 2 is closed, Highway 1 is closed west of Enterprise and all the way from Enterprise to the Alberta border, and Highway 5 is closed.
15:36 – What’s the City of Yellowknife doing to protect the community right now? Here’s a list and a map from my colleague Emily.
15:22 – A tiny amount of rain is passing over Yellowknife, and I almost want to hug it.
15:18 – We have two press conferences coming up. We can’t stream either of them live, we just don’t have the resources and staff are already running on empty, but we will have live text updates here. At 4pm the GNWT will have a press conference and Sarah will bring you live updates from it. At 5:15pm the City of Yellowknife will have a press conference and I will bring you updates from that one.
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15:15 – City of Yellowknife states: “From Tuesday, August 15 to Sunday, August 20, public hours for the solid waste facility will be extended, granting residents access from 7:30am to 4:15pm. This temporary change allows people to bring fire smarted materials to the SWF. The SWF will return to regular hours, with the facility closed to the public on Monday, August 21.”
Nobody calls it the SWF, do they?
15:13
We invested in one of these because if Yellowknife’s internet and phones go down (not a thing yet, but we’ve seen it happen elsewhere), I am gonna come and bark updates into this thing up and down the city. Just saying.
15:03 – NWT Fire says fire SS052 “engulfed” Enterprise yesterday.
Fresh update: Crews are trying to gauge extent of damage caused by SS052 while crews on Fire 7 (which has about a billion different names now but you know the one we mean and we’re sticking with it) are working on a dozer line and ignition operations outside Fort Smith.
“It is highly dependent on people vacating the area,” NWT Fire said of the work against Fire 7. “Value protection units have established protections around Thebacha and critical infrastructure within Fort Smith.”
14:58 – From Norman Wells’ fire chief:
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“All numbers starting with 587 are currently not working in Norman Wells. Here are some alternate ways to contact emergency services in Norman Wells.”
He provides this list:
Fire Chief – Brandon Scott 867-688-0683
Captain – Drayton Walker 867-446-4023
Bylaw-867-445-8434
Nurse On call – 867-444-4321
ENR Wildfire reporting-Jules Fournel-867-447-0074
Wildlife/Bear line-laurel Mcdonald-867-447-0078
RCMP-Go to the detachment
14:50 – Hi everyone, this is Ollie. Thanks Sarah for filling in while I spoke with the premier. A full transcript of that interview is coming up.
Also still to come: Yellowknife’s update on how its wildfire defences are progressing.
Sarah and I will tag-team the live for most of the afternoon, not least because most Cabin Radio staff have dogs they need to check in on – and on that note, we know a lot of you have questions about pets and evacuations.
We do not have firm guidance on what would happen to pets in the event of a Yellowknife evacuation (and again, officials currently say the city is not threatened), but in other evacuations, the general deal is that dogs don’t get into evacuation centres but do get onto planes.
If we get firm official advice, we’ll pass it on. But that’s unlikely to come at this stage, with the focus on wildfire prep west of Yellowknife and so far no sign of an evacuation notice or anything similar.
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14:27 – “Canadian Armed Forces is also deploying one helicopter and one twin otter to assist in the ongoing wildfire and emergency response, and a Hercules aircraft is assisting with the evacuation in Hay River. Additional personnel and equipment are also being provided by the Canadian Coast Guard,” wrote MP Michael McLeod in a Facebook post.
14:07 – There seems to be an issue with Telus customers in at least some areas of the NWT. Multiple customers – us included – are currently unable to dial land lines from their Telus phones.
14:03 – The final sitting of the 19th Legislative Assembly is being pushed back by several days due to the wildfire crisis. The session has now been delayed until August 21. More on that in our story here.
13:57 – Highway 1 is closed from km 0 (NWT/AB Border) to km 140 due to the wildfire.
Check the Highway Conditions Map here for the most up-to-date information.
13:50 – The NWT’s wildfire agency says crews are prioritizing work on a significant breach of the retardant line east of a wildfire burning toward Yellowknife.
13:48 – Grande Prairie’s Alliance Church, which is also acting as the reception centre where evacuees must register, is collecting donations of prepackaged food and beverages for evacuees. Thank you Grande Prairie!
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If you are a Grande Prairie resident reading this and want to help, details on where to drop off donations can be found here.
13:41 – Our interview with Premier Cochrane will be replayed at the top of each hour – 2pm, 3pm, 4pm – this afternoon on our live stream, and we’ll have the transcript on our site soon.
13:33 – The GNWT has just issued a news release on the Canadian Armed Forces support that will be arriving in the NWT tomorrow.
One hundred soldiers will be Type III firefighters, which as Premier Cochrane said means they don’t directly fight fires but rather help with things like putting out hot spots.
Their help means more Type I firefighters will be freed up to directly respond to the wildfires.
The other 24 soldiers will coordinate logistics of the deployment.
13:22 – Premier Cochrane also asks visitors to hold off on coming to the NWT right now.
“We’ve got a lot of emergencies happening and we need to focus on the residents here,” she says.
And that’s it for the live interview. We’ll bring you a written version shortly.
13:20 – Last question from Ollie, asking if the territorial election should be postponed this fall. Cochrane says it needs consideration, but that “we need to focus on the realities of people right now.”
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“If I put myself in their position, the last thing I would be thinking about is an election.”
13:18 – “I think Yellowknife has been diligently meeting regularly to try to define their plan. We’re making a more comprehensive plan. But again, what I need residents to do two things: I need residents to do is please fire smart your properties … But the bigger thing that I need people to do is when we call if we call an evacuation order, I need people to leave,” Cochrane continue in the live interview.
13:16 – Ollie asked Cochrane how confident she is that Yellowknife has an effective emergency plan.
“Yellowknife has laid their plan out a little bit,” she says. “The reality is, is that the road’s closed right now. If the road stays closed, then well if it’s breached, we’ll be moving people from one side [of the city] to the other. Hopefully, one of the highways will be open. We’ll be moving people out by air if necessary, but at this moment, it’s important for people to realize that Yellowknife is not currently at risk. That could change anytime because of the wind.”
13:13 – We spoke with GPrep, the Grand Prairie Regional Emergency Partnership, about how the evacuation reception is going in Grande Prairie.
As of 11:45am on Monday, 485 people had registered through the reception centre at Alliance Church.
“As of right now, I think everything is going as well as it can be,” said Mackenzie Koep, who works for GPrep.
The centre is open from 8am to 8pm and evacuees must register in person when they arrive in Grande Prairie. The church’s address is 15502 102 St, Grande Prairie, AB.
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13:06 – “The amount of traction that [Hay River and Enterprise] fire got yesterday because of the wind was unprecedented. We never expected that,” says Cochrane in an interview with Ollie Williams.
13:04 – We are getting 100 firefighters who can handle mop-ups and hot spots form the Canadian Armed Forces. An additional 20 military members are coming to help with logistical support, Cochrane says.
13:02 – Our live with Premier Cochrane has started. Cochrane is saying the most important thing for residents to do is to follow evacuation orders. Listen here.
12:52 – Our interview with Premier Cochrane is coming up at 1pm, live. Listen here.
12:44 – People have been asking us whether pets can travel on rescue flights. In Hay River we are told: “Pets will be allowed on flights in a kennel with an escort. Please go to the airport to confirm further details.”
12:28 – We’ve got a lot of information coming in from the city meeting and the latest Yellowknife-area fire update, so stay tuned for full reporting on both. (I’m just relocating across town ready to speak with Premier Cochrane at 1pm so updates may be a little more brief from now till about 1:30pm.)
12:24 – The legislature’s sitting, due to begin on Wednesday, has been delayed till Monday next week.
12:20 – From the city: “Portions of Deh Cho Boulevard will be closed to the public for firesmarting work. Local traffic will be permitted to access the area.”
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12:17
This is from a presentation at the city’s meeting just now, illustrating the city’s defence plan. My understanding is not all of the above is yet in place. We will have full coverage coming up.
Yellow shows fire breaks. Red shows sprinklers.
12:15 – Obviously, NWT Fire stating there is a “significant” breach in ZF015’s containment west of Yellowknife is now something we will keep a very, very close eye on. So far, no elevation in threat level according to officials. My colleague Emily is working on more detailed coverage.
12:12 – NWT Fire says the Ingraham Trail fire is about nine kilometres from Prelude, Prosperous and River lakes.
12:11 – NWT Fire has issued an update on fire around Yellowknife.
Fire ZF015, west of the city, is now 30 km northwest of Yellowknife at its closest point, about a five-kilometre gain in the past day. NWT Fire says a breach in a containment line holding back ZF015 is “now significant. Our number one priority is containing it.”
“Yellowknife, N’Dilo, and Dettah are not currently at threat. However, we do urge everyone to be ready should the situation change,” the wildfire agency stated.
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12:09 – Yellowknife’s council meeting has begun. Watch live.
11:54 – Aurora College won’t start its fall semester till October 3 at all locations because of the fires and evacuations. The semester had been due to start on August 28. Here’s our full report.
11:39 – Here’s our latest on the situation in Hay River, leading on the fact that nobody has yet been reported missing, which we sincerely hope stays that way. Thanks to my colleague Emily for updating this.
11:36 – Aurora College is delaying the start of its semester. More follows.
11:34 – United Way NWT has asked us to mention its donation portal.
“At the moment we’ve raised about $580,000 and have distributed or committed about 85% of these funds to past evacuees. With the continuing and rising emergency needs we anticipate a greater need for funding,” wrote United Way NWT president Amber Henry.
You can find the portal here if you’re able to give.
11:30 – From Yellowknife Mayor Rebecca Alty ahead of a meeting of city councillors that starts at noon: “We’ll be doing an update re: work underway in YK re: fire protection (should start at 12:10 pm – just after a quick Special Council).”
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You can watch the meeting here. It’s a regularly scheduled meeting but they’ve added an agenda item for fire protection, basically.
11:28 – We have an update from Parks Canada on Fire 7 outside Fort Smith.
As of 7am, Fire 7 was estimated to five kilometres south of Fort Smith.
“Today, structural protection crews will assess impacted areas from last night’s fire spread and continue to run sprinkler systems,” Parks Canada wrote.
“The incident management teams will also be looking at broader containment strategies to ensure the safety of the communities given continued challenging fire behaviour conditions.
“While forecast winds are not as strong and gusty as yesterday, current drought conditions are contributing to continued extreme fire behaviour and will lead to additional fire growth. Unsettled atmospheric conditions may bring localized wind gusts, affecting some areas of the fire more than others.”
Winds did reach 60 km/h on Sunday as anticipated. Crews had to be pulled away by 12:30pm and aircraft were grounded after 2pm as conditions were “extremely unsafe” and too smoky to fly, Parks Canada said.
11:09 – Remember, get in touch with us any time. We particularly want to hear from evacuees who made it out via airlift from Fort Smith or Hay River. If you’re one of those people and are happy to be contacted by us, use this form to let us know how to reach you.
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11:07 – Here’s our full story on Jean Marie River’s evacuation.
11:00 – A reminder that Premier Caroline Cochrane will be live on air with me at 1pm. You can listen live to Cabin Radio here.
10:57 – Update for Inuvik: you guys are not the issue today. No significant growth in the fire east of Inuvik, conditions are helping fire crews out. More from NWT Fire.
10:56 – People have been turning up at our studios with coffee and donations. You guys are the best people on the planet and this is why the NWT is the greatest community, even in horrible times like this. Thank you.
10:50 – The GNWT issued a message for Fort Smith near-identical to the Hay River one: get to the airport now. Do not try to use the road.
10:49 – This just in from the Town of Hay River. One more flight heading out at 11:20am. This also gives us an updated distance travelled for the fire yesterday:
“Emergency crews remain on site. All long-term care residents have been transported to Yellowknife and patients medevaced to Yellowknife. Crews attended to one motor vehicle accident with no serious injuries. There are no known missing persons.
“An RJ100 aircraft will be at the Hay River airport for 11:20am with 100 seats available to take evacuees to Fort McMurray. The road exiting Hay River is currently not passable and there are no support services for the highway. It is critical that evacuees get on the plane as the road exit is not available and uncertain for the foreseeable future.
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“Firefighters have been arriving from other areas. The spotter airplane will be up to view the location of the edge of the fires. More information on fire location will follow. Four helicopters and water bombers are en route. The western fire guard for Hay River is being expanded.
“The Kakisa fire travelled approximately 39 kilometres towards Hay River yesterday due to high winds. There was significant structure damage in the Hamlet of Enterprise, Patterson Road area and to parts of Paradise Gardens. Our thoughts are with those that have lost homes and businesses. Significant damage has also occurred to Northwestel fibre lines as well as electrical lines south of Patterson Road.”
10:44 – Everybody got out of Jean Marie River, the GNWT confirms.
“This fire is suspected to be person caused. It’s approximately 400 hectares in size, 10 km south of Jean Marie River,” NWT Fire states.
“A confluence of wind from both the west and the north are centring fire activity around the community. Heavy equipment is being brought in by crews to action this fire. A helicopter is also coming to be assessing the fire from the air this morning.”
10:42 – This photo comes from the Prelude boat launch. I am told the launch is not closed but it needs to be kept clear in case authorities need to get out onto Prelude later.
10:38 – I’ve been asked about Fort Resolution, which is almost alone in not being asked to evacuate over the weekend.
So far I have no update from the community but that works both ways, in as much as I have no bad news to report either. At the moment, the only wildfire near Fort Resolution is being held back by the river and the wind is pushing it away from the community.
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10:35 – My colleague Megan is in Fort Simpson with Jean Marie River evacuees. At last, we are able to get a little more detail about their situation. You will recall that Jean Marie River was placed under an evacuation order on Sunday but then a wildfire blocked their only road out, so there has been a lot of concern about how people were able to leave.
An evacuee Megan spoke with said residents eventually left by plane and helicopter. “They had to wait a while because the wind was so bad the aircraft couldn’t land to pick them up, but they got out with no injuries. Seven people stayed behind,” Megan reports. (We aren’t able to independently verify that figure.)
10:23 – Mo writes: “Shout out to Grace Whelly and gang from Fort Smith Northern Lights care home. So many of us are thinking about you. It’s a given that the staff will be going above and beyond to keep you safe.”
To send messages to us, you can use this form.
10:21 – Highway update: Highway 3 open, Highway 2 closed, Highway 1 closed west of Enterprise, Highway 5 closed.
10:14 – There are much more significant things happening right now but since we have been asked, if you’d like to write to the CRTC about an FM licence for Cabin Radio, you can email [email protected] and tell them you are writing regarding application number 2023-0253-7 – and then add whatever you’d like to tell them.
10:10 – We’ve started a separate page with everything we have on the condition of Enterprise. Updates will appear here with the overview there.
10:03 – An emergency message from the GNWT for anyone in Hay River:
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“ANY PERSON REMAINING IN HAY RIVER. ANY PERSON WHO CAN MESSAGE FAMILY AND FRIENDS IN HAY RIVER TELL THEM TO GO TO AIRPORT NOW. DO NOT WAIT TO DRIVE ON HIGHWAY 2.
“THERE ARE NO EMERGENCY PERSONNEL ON HIGHWAY 2 WHO CAN HELP YOU.
“Conditions are dangerous and will continue to worsen. The highway is not an option as a way out. Emergency personnel cannot operate safely on Highway 2. Emergency services are severely restricted. Your safest way out is on the plane, NOW. GO TO THE AIRPORT NOW.”
9:46 – A first look at Enterprise.
9:42 – New from RCMP, an update on the highway. There is a hint of some really good news in here, so here’s hoping:
“We had some officers travel through the road between Enterprise and Hay River this morning. They reported about a dozen vehicles in the ditch that have been destroyed by fire. They stopped to check each one as they passed. Fortunately, it does not appear that anyone was trapped in the vehicles and we have not had any reports of missing people yet.
“This of course could change. With multiple evacuation sites and limited communications, I don’t think anyone has a really strong grasp on where everyone is.”
Thanks to Cpl Matt Halstead for that update.
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9:39 – Yellowknife’s old Stanton Hospital, yet to reopen as a long-term care facility, opened early to help people coming from evacuated Fort Smith and Hay River. Here’s more from our reporters Emily and Sarah.
9:18 – Unfortunately the fancy live-blogging software is struggling a little with the load so we’re moving to old-school regular text updates on this page. Refresh the page to get more updates as they come in.
9:16 – New from Northwestel: “We have confirmed that wildfire activity in Enterprise NWT has damaged Northwestel infrastructure that feeds the South Slave communities. We do not expect service to the area to be restored within the next 24 hours at a minimum.”
9:01 – The Town of Hay River writes: “A Hercules Aircraft is on the tarmac at the Hay River airport. All evacuees need to be at the airport no later than 0915 to depart to Fort McMurray.”
8:49 – Thank you again to everyone who is signing up for monthly donations to Cabin Radio. This means the world to us and every cent will be put straight back into our journalism. We’ve had about 10 or 15 new donors sign up so far today and that support is helping a great deal to power us through. (That and coffee.)
8:48 – With 80 votes in, Yellowknife internet results: 42% seems fine, 58% struggling.
Today is the day to set up the Starlink, just in case.
We have an update on healthcare arrangements in Yellowknife for people who were moved from the South Slave, stand by for that.
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8:35 – I don’t know about you, but my internet feels like it’s been about a hair’s breadth from collapsing on me here in Yellowknife all morning.
If you’re in Yellowknife and have a moment, please take this extremely fast poll for me so I can get a sense of whether it’s just me or more widespread.
8:33 – Health services in Yellowknife may be reduced as staff work to cope with the effects of everything that is happening in the South Slave.
Overnight, Hay River’s health authority said residents of the town’s Woodland Manor and Supportive Living Service program arrived in Yellowknife earlier on Sunday, with support staff.
“Staff are doing their best to contact families with updates, but due to current communication failures within the NWT, we have yet to contact everyone,” Erin Griffiths, the health authority’s boss, wrote.
The health authority plans to set up a contact phone number so people can check in on their family members.
8:17 – The air quality is grim in both Yellowknife and Fort Smith this morning, above 400 on the AQI scale, which is well into “emergency conditions” yet again.
There are no readings for most of the South Slave as the communications outage means the sensors can’t reach the internet.
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Check the latest on our air quality map.
8:15 – Here’s a full update on fire SS052 travelling “up to 50 km” in a day yesterday.
8:11 – Back to Jean Marie River, where we’re still waiting for any update at all for the past 12 hours or more, though I stress that satellite imagery suggests the community was not directly hit.
Here’s a video from Paul Thunder-Stealer showing the wildfire crossing the access road yesterday.
7:57 – There is light rain in Fort Smith according to images I’m seeing from the airfield.
7:47 – Wildfire information officer Mike Westwick, live on CBC North’s The Trailbreaker:
“The fire [west of Hay River] grew east to the tune of up to 50 km yesterday, 45 to 50 km, and we are expecting additional westerly winds today in the area. There is a chance for some showers but we do expect significant, continuing fire activity.
“Enterprise has been breached by fire and there has been damage. Our priority today is regrouping after getting everyone safe and taking steps that we can to keep the people and communities of the territory safe as we face down this unprecedented situation
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“We are going to be doing everything we can to protect KFN and Hay River.”
7:47 – CBC reporter and Fort Smith resident Carla Ulrich, describing her own evacuation south on the highway: “People would start passing, but then other people would be pulling over. For the most part, it felt safe. I did see one accident outside of Manning, and that was a bit shocking.”
7:47 – Here’s a full update on the state of Fort Smith’s evacuation. Everyone is reported safe to the best of anyone’s knowledge, the town says, and the airlift continues.
7:22 – A priority for us this morning will be to get an update on the condition of Enterprise. We have no recent information so far.
7:20 – Town of Fort Smith protective services director Adam McNab live on CBC North’s The Trailbreaker just now:
“We are safe. The people remaining in the community are safe. We’re still continuing to work on evacuation efforts. We just sent a Hercules aircraft full of people on their way to Fort McMurray and we have two more aircraft on the way. They’ll be back in the community in the next three or four hours and we’ll be loading them up and turning them around.
“As far as I’m aware, very fortunately, nobody has been hurt. We are working hard to keep it that way. The community hasn’t been directly impacted by the fire as of yet.
“We believe there are approximately 70 people [remaining in the town] if you don’t include wildfire agencies and essential service workers.
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“We have opened up a shelter-in-place location at the recreation centre and we will be moving people here even if they aren’t willing to leave the community. The fire department is back out with sirens going and PAs, urging people to evacuate.”
7:16 – Today’s weather forecast:
– Hay River: High of 20C. A mix of sun and cloud. 60 percent chance of showers early this morning with risk of a thunderstorm. West wind 10 km/h.
– Fort Smith: High of 22C. Becoming cloudy near noon with 60 percent chance of showers this afternoon. Risk of a thunderstorm this afternoon. West wind 10 km/h, then 20 km/h after noon.
– Yellowknife: High of 18C. Northwest wind 20 km/h after noon.
7:11
This is the highway situation as of 7am on Monday. Yellow or green means it’s open, red is closed. The latest is on the GNWT’s highway conditions page.
6:58 – The City of Yellowknife just posted online reiterating that it isn’t currently under threat.
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6:52 – Colin sent us this note:
“Mom, early 80s, and cousin in her 70s made it to High Level safe but had lots to say about the conditions to the border being treacherous. Mom evacuated from Fort Smith and cousin from Hay River.
“They were happy to have a warm welcome at the High Level rec centre and were prepared to sleep on a cot but the waitress at Boston Pizza wasn’t having any of that and insisted they bunk at her home. Thank you Hay River for being there Saturday night for mom and thank you High Level for the same! Grande Prairie next stop.”
A huge thank-you from the NWT to the Alberta communities who opened their doors at extremely short notice yesterday, and to everyone who played any part in getting people out by road and air.
This is a Firms wildfire tracking image of Fort Smith. Again, the red blocks are wildfire hot spots.
As the town reported, the fire reached the turnoff just before Bell Rock. You can also see it extending past Fort Fitzgerald to the south.
6:43
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This is a screengrab from Firms, which tracks wildfire activity. Each red block is a hot spot.
This shows the extent of the fire’s overnight reach south of Hay River, and particularly around Enterprise. So far, we have no photos or reports from the ground there – not least because there’s no cell service or internet.
6:30 – Thank you to Reiss, who points out we can confirm there was overnight rain in Hay River. Footage exists here. (I did not think I was into videos of rain, but that was a great video of rain.)
Doug Flint has been in touch. He made it to High Level and was allowed to stay in the yard of Mackenzie Veterinary Services overnight, and will soon press on to Grande Prairie.
Doug, from Fort Smith, and a convoy of eight vehicles (and 31 dogs) rolled out of Hay River at 4:40pm on Sunday, he writes.
“I was most impressed with the behaviour of traffic on the highway. It got very dark and eerie, scary to some. A few idiots but for most part everybody went with th flow and passed safely,” Doug told us by email.
“I went through the Fort McMurray fire and didn’t find this particularly frightening, although it was clearly time to be somewhere else.”
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Above is the scene as they left the beach in Hay River.
6:22 – If you want to mark yourself safe or you’re in search of a loved one who evacuated, this Facebook group has been set up to help people find each other.
6:21 – Obviously our focus is on the preservation of life in the South Slave, but I’m also aware that many people spent yesterday rushing preparations to completion at properties north of the Ingraham trail, and this is a scary situation for people trying to protect the things they love and that have meaning to them.
We will carry updates throughout the day on the fires west of Yellowknife, southeast of Dettah and north of the Ingraham Trail, as soon as we have them.
6:17 – On that note, we could barely follow it last night because of the communications blackout in the South Slave but the overnight airlift is without doubt the largest rescue operation the NWT has ever seen, and we will bring you more information about what took place as soon as those involved are confirmed safe and feel able to speak with us.
6:16 – A new emergency message from the Town of Fort Smith reads:
“The only way out is by aircraft. There is an aircraft leaving the community in one hour. Everyone with a vehicle, drive to the Fort Smith Airport immediately to board the plane. Anyone without a vehicle make your way to the Fort Smith Recreation Centre immediately for transportation assistance or shelter in place.”
6:13 – A reminder that Boundary Creek on Highway 3 is also under an evacuation order, as are several areas along lakes north of the Ingraham Trail.
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In a minute, we’ll take a look at the latest satellite imagery.
6:09 – Here’s a full story with the latest from me on where we’re at with internet, phone and cell across NWT communities.
6:07 – My colleague Megan is in Fort Simpson with evacuees from Jean Marie River. There are reports of some significant rain over Jean Marie River and the Dehcho yesterday, possibly extending to areas of Hay River overnight, but I don’t have that confirmed.
6:05 – At the last update from Northwestel (around 4am), communities with major internet, phone and cell disruption were Hay River, Fort Smith, Enterprise, Fort Providence and Jean Marie River.
“Phone and cellular services have been restored in Tulita, Délįnę, Fort Good Hope, Norman Wells, Wrigley and Fort Resolution. Work to restore internet services is ongoing. Services remain available but limited in Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk, Tsiigehtchic, Aklavik and Fort McPherson,” Northwestel wrote earlier. I can tell you Fort Simpson now has cell service again, too.
6:01 – Here’s the state of play as of 6am on Monday:
– Aircraft were racing overnight to complete airlifts in Hay River and Fort Smith.
– At midnight, the Town of Hay River reported damage from Paradise Gardens south to Enterprise but not in the town itself, and no injuries or fatalities in Hay River itself. More than 200 people were airlifted to Grande Prairie. Airlift flights were taking place through the night to Fort McMurray.
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– Fort Smith also airlifted people to Fort McMurray. At 2:30am, the town’s protective services team said “almost everyone” had left Fort Smith to safety and a wildfire had reached the Thebacha turn off west of the Bell Rock subdivision, where a dozer guard is now being built. More aircraft are due in the morning.
– Some evacuees who left by road described a harrowing ordeal in which they only just reached safety. Hay River lost highway access midway through Sunday evening. Highway 1 west of Enterprise, Highway 2 south of Hay River and Highway 5 east of Hay River to Fort Resolution and Fort Smith are closed as of 6am. Highway 3 is open.
To read all of Sunday’s overnight updates as they happened, click here.
My huge thanks to my colleague Sarah Pruys, who worked through the night to bring us updates.
5:52 – You can reach us by email with any updates you have. I particularly would love to hear from evacuees who made it safely to Grande Prairie or Fort McMurray. Tell us how your night was and how you’re doing now. Share a photo or two if you feel up to it.
In a moment I’ll recap the night’s events for people who were able to get some sleep and don’t have the latest. Stand by.
5:48 – Good morning. How is it already 5:45am. * reaches for kettle *
Wherever you are in the world, whatever your Sunday looked like – I hope you’re dong OK. This is Ollie. Our live coverage continues here.
