The NWT’s wildfire agency says an explosives cache situated between Yellowknife and an oncoming wildfire is not considered a major concern.
No information was provided at a Saturday news conference regarding the contents of the cache, which was labelled on a map issued by NWT Fire showing the fire’s progress outside the city.
After the conclusion of the press conference, NWT Fire – in a phone call with Cabin Radio – asserted that a map showing the location of the cache had been distributed in error.
The wildfire agency said the location of the cache was information proprietary to a company that it did not name, and requested the removal of the map from this report as a matter of public safety.
Cabin Radio has complied in the interim pending further investigation of the matter.
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The original map showed a cache to the west of the city that NWT Fire stated was related to explosives used in quarrying and blasting. A spokesperson said such facilities are common near communities.
Though the spokesperson said the facility is secure, they said the inadvertent revealing of its existence in distributing a map earlier on Sunday could represent a security risk.
Asked what the possible impact of a wildfire reaching the facility would be, NWT Fire said fire crews were aware of the facility and had accounted for it in planning.
As of Saturday, fire ZF015 remained about 15 kilometres west of the city but officials said there were “tough conditions coming up” that could push the fire east.
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“This fire is taking a nap and it’s going to wake up, and we’ve still got a serious situation to handle here,” said territorial wildfire information officer Mike Westwick at a Saturday evening press conference.
“We’ve got huge fires encircling our capital city, and our team is continuing to attack from the air and slow the growth of these fires.”
Asked during the press conference to explain what the explosives cache marked on the map was, Westwick said it was a “known area that has explosives in it that we just need to make sure that we consider. It’s not of elevated concern.”
Pressed to clarify the nature of those explosives, he added: “I can’t. It’s proprietary information from the company.” The company in question was not specified.
Emily Blake contributed reporting.
