NWT’s Dehcho region now under fire ban

The Northwest Territories has implemented another region-wide fire ban ahead of the long weekend, this time in the Dehcho.

In a Thursday afternoon press release, the Department of Environment and Climate Change said as of 5pm, all open flames are prohibited on public and private lands in Sambaa K’e, Fort Liard, Wrigley, Nahanni Butte, Fort Simpson and Jean Marie River.

Restrictions also apply to all territorial parks in the region.

The ban restricts residents from:

• starting, tending or using fires outdoors, including in pits and burn barrels;
• discharging firearms with incendiary or tracer ammunition;
• shooting or detonating exploding targets;
• shooting fireworks or firecrackers;
• igniting sky lanterns;
• igniting signal flare devices or pyrotechnic bear bangers except in emergencies; and
• storing flare devices, bear bangers, fireworks or firecrackers in a way that can cause them to be ignited.

“These restrictions are being implemented due to high-to-extreme wildfire danger, drought conditions and a high risk of new ignitions due to lightning,” the release states.

The ban will remain in effect through July 3 and may be extended. Any burn permits are temporarily cancelled while the ban is in effect.

Closed stoves, barbecues, furnaces and other devices suitable for containing fire may still be used. The use of fire for exercising Indigenous or treaty rights is also exempt from the ban.

Fire bans are currently also in effect in Yellowknife, Hay River, the Sahtu region and several territorial parks.

A total of 36 fires have burned around 27,460 hectares across the NWT so far this year. Thirteen of those fires are still actively burning, including 10 deemed out of control.

Territorial wildfire officials have said 16 of the wildfires reported in the NWT this year were caused by humans.

In the North Slave region, eight of nine fires were reported to be caused by people. NWT Fire said the out-of-control wildfire that has displaced residents of Fort Good Hope was the result of an abandoned campfire.

NWT Fire has not suggested any fires were caused by arson. It attributed many of the human-caused wildfires to campfires or burn piles that were left abandoned.

The territory’s wildfire agency also said a “significant lightning outbreak across the Dehcho, South Slave, and parts of the North Slave and Sahtu is under way” as of Friday afternoon.

“Likelihood of new ignitions in the south of the territory is high,” NWT Fire stated.

“We’re patrolling from the air – chasing the storms to catch fires small and keep the territory safe.”