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A wildfire rolled across Highway 1 at the Alberta-NWT border late on Monday, closing the road and sending some travellers back to Hay River or High Level.
As of 8:25am on Tuesday, Highway 1 up to Enterprise had reopened according to the NWT’s highway conditions webpage. However, further closures were possible.
The fire was concentrated just north of the border, satellite hotspot tracking suggests. 511 Alberta reported Highway 35 on the south side of the border was open as of 5am.
While the Sixtieth Parallel Territorial Park is only a few kilometres from some of the most recent fire activity, there are no NWT communities threatened by the wildfires in the area – most notably SS009, which has been burning since May.
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Last year’s fires were sufficiently damaging that almost no fuel – in other words, forest – exists between these fires and Enterprise for the hamlet or Hay River to be struck again.
“There are no fire threats to Enterprise or Hay River, but there may be heavy smoke from fires further to the west and south,” the NWT’s Department of Infrastructure stated on Tuesday morning.
Tuesday marks one year since much of Enterprise was destroyed by a fast-moving wildfire.
