Evacuate now, Kakisa residents are told

A wildfire threatening Kakisa has triggered an evacuation order, plunging the NWT further into a fire-driven crisis of extraordinary scale.

As Yellowknife’s 20,000 people evacuated over a separate fire, Kakisa’s 36 residents – far to the south but on the same highway system – were ordered to head west to Fort Simpson, away from most of the column of Yellowknifers heading south to Alberta.

Kakisa would ordinarily evacuate to Hay River, but Hay River is itself fully evacuated with an oncoming fire blocking highway access. Fort Smith, Enterprise and the Kátł’odeeche First Nation are also under evacuation orders.