High chance of structure loss from Fort Good Hope wildfire overnight

The Fort Good Hope wildfire that caused the community to evacuate was less than 1 km from the town as of 11 pm on Saturday evening.

In a Facebook update, NWT Fire said winds have shifted and are going to be pushing the fire south and west toward the community.

“While the wildfire has not yet reached Fort Good Hope, it is within one kilometre of structures in the community. There is a high probability of structure loss within the community during the night,” the fire agency said in its post.

“It’s obviously an extremely serious situation,” said Mike Westwick, a fire information officer with the GNWT late on Saturday night. He said the safest thing for people to do is follow the evacuation order, saying large fires can create their own weather and generate strong winds that can capsize boats – a dangerous situation if people try to evacuate later by water.

The fire was approximately two hectares in size on Saturday morning. At the time of the last assessment, it was around 200 hectares in size.

Ground and air crews will be working into the night, as long as it is safe, to protect the town.

The fire has grown throughout the day and spot fires – fires that have been caused by embers of the main fire – have started south of the winter road, about four or five kilometres northeast of the airport. Airport Road is not impacted yet, but that is expected overnight.

There are currently three teams of four people on the ground working on structure protection and fire suppression, with more crews on the way. Four air tankers and one helicopter are helping to fight the fire from the air.

An Incident Management Team is being mobilized from across the territory to help manage the fire.

“We’re just doing absolutely everything we can to protect everything that we can in Fort Good Hope,” Westwick said, adding additional structure protection equipment, such as sprinkler kits, was also on the way.

“We understand that visibility was starting to become a concern, but all air assets, from from air tankers to helicopters, are working for as long as it is safe to do so in the area to reduce the intensity of that fire and hopefully slow its growth and protect everything we can in Fort Good Hope under these extremely challenging fire conditions,” he said.

“This is obviously our highest priority incident at this time, and we’re going to be dedicating the resources necessary to manage this fire over the long term.”

An evacuation order was issued for the community at 3:30pm after NWT Fire reported an abandoned campfire had turned into a wildfire on Saturday.

Evacuation flights into Norman Wells began arriving around 6:30pm and continued into the night. The last evacuation flight left around 11pm.

Air Tindi and Summit Air are using two Dash 7s, two Twin Otters, and a Dornier 228 to evacuate residents, in addition to people who took other charters and scheduled flights out of Fort Good Hope.

A spokesperson with the GNWT said Délı̨nę is on standby to also accept evacuees if needed, and the Territorial Emergency Management Organization is also looking at how to support more evacuees in Norman Wells, Délı̨nę, or other communities if needed.

Kayla Turner, the Governance and Community Engagement Manager with the Town of Norman Wells, said the community hall is set up for 50 people and the arena can hold approximately 15 people. The school gym may also be used.

Lots of people are going to stay with family members, she said, noting Norman Wells is expecting about 100 evacuees to arrive on Saturday evening.

Elders and long-term care home residents will be evacuated on the first three evacuation planes, which collectively can transport 60 people, a GNWT spokesperson told Cabin Radio.

Fort Good Hope has a population of approximately 500 people.

Evacuees asked to register at the band office

The territorial government evacuation alert at 3:30pm followed an evacuation order issued by Chief Collin Pierrot an hour earlier. Writing on Facebook, he told residents: “Please pack light and pack your important paperwork, ID, and most importantly your medication.

“The muster point will be at the band hall … please keep calm, as we are operating in an emergency manner.”

Fire could reach community in less than a day

Earlier on Saturday, NWT Fire wrote in a Facebook update: “There is the risk that with wind shifts to the northeast and east overnight that the wildfire could reach the community within the next 24 hours,” though firefighters were doing “everything possible” to prevent this.

“Winds are currently coming from the northeast, gusting 20-30 km/h which is pushing fire to the south and west. Wind shift overnight to northeast to east may push fire towards the community,” the wildfire agency said.

Shortly before 3pm, Pierrot posted on his personal Facebook page calling for people to assist with firefighting efforts, saying, “If you are able to assist in fighting forest fires please see the incident fire commander, where we need your help.”

NWT Fire said the fire, which started 3.8 km northeast of Fort Good Hope, is being actioned by airtankers, a helicopter, and local fire crews on the ground.

North-Wright Airways operations manager Kyle Newhook said they are already helping to bring in additional firefighting crews, and are also on standby to help with evacuations.

“We are working to establish structure protection in the community as quickly as possible,” said NWT Fire, noting dry conditions and wind may make fighting the fire difficult and no rain is expected in the area over the next two days.

Wildfire VQ001 is classified as out of control and has grown to five hectares in size, up from two hectares when it was discovered on Saturday morning. NWT Fire said it was caused by an abandoned campfire.

Pierrot said leadership had held an emergency meeting on Saturday afternoon and declared a state of emergency. He said leaders would continue to keep everyone updated. NWT Fire will also publish updates as they become available on its website.

On Friday, NWT Fire warned dry conditions and high winds were expected across much of the territory this weekend, leading to high risk of new wildfires starting.