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The Town of Fort Smith has cancelled an evacuation alert and moved the community back down to evacuation notice as crews tackle a nearby wildfire.
A fire immediately to the east is now “being held,” the town said at 8:15pm on Saturday.
The territory said the situation had “stabilized” and the risk to structures had been reduced by firefighters’ efforts.
Earlier, the NWT’s 2025 wildfire season had surged into existence with an evacuation alert that came out of nothing when a fire erupted within a kilometre of the town. (An evacuation notice means be prepared. An evacuation alert means be ready to go. An evacuation order means you need to leave.)
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NWT Fire said the four-hectare wildfire was believed to have been started by a person.
Residents were told “to be ready for a possible evacuation” early on Saturday evening. Conditions, however, were helpful, with the wind directing the fire away from the community.
The town initially described the fire as an “active and aggressive wildfire.” The first two streets placed on evacuation notice were Primrose Lane and Carl’s Drive, each at the southeastern end of Fort Smith. Within minutes, that had been upgraded to an evacuation alert.
Town and NWT government firefighters collaborated to tackle the fire with helicopter support. Sprinklers were set up on nearby buildings.
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NWT Fire said the fire appeared to have been “completely avoidable” and said it serves as a stark warning that people need to be extremely careful with fire on the landscape as warmer weather reaches the territory.
“The wildfire near Primrose and Carl’s Drive is now being held and crews have made significant progress. The situation has stabilized and the risk to structures has been reduced,” the town stated just after 8pm, two hours into the evacuation alert.
“The evacuation status has been downgraded to an evacuation notice. There is no immediate threat, but residents in the area should remain prepared in case conditions change.”
The town said GNWT fire crews will monitor the situation throughout the evening and return on Sunday “to address remaining hot spots.”
Fort Smith, which is home to around 2,500 people, endured a month-long wildfire-related evacuation in the summer of 2023. Residents had to evacuate twice in two days when they first moved to Hay River, then Hay River itself declared an evacuation of its own within 24 hours. Some journeys out of Hay River that day were among the most harrowing of the NWT’s severe 2023 wildfire season.
Live coverage has now concluded. Updates appeared below, latest first. All times are MT. Ollie Williams, Claire McFarlane and Sarah Pruys contributed reporting.
With that welcome news, we will conclude this evening's live coverage. Thanks for joining me and thanks to my colleagues Claire McFarlane and Sarah Pruys for their help.
The Town of Fort Smith says the fire is now being held. The evacuation alert is downgraded to an evacuation notice.
"The wildfire near Primrose and Carl's Drive is now being held, and crews have made significant progress. The situation has stabilized, and the risk to structures has been reduced," the town just stated.
"The evacuation status has been downgraded to an Evacuation Notice. There is no immediate threat, but residents in the area should remain prepared in case conditions change.
"The ECC will continue to monitor the situation this evening, and crews will return tomorrow to address remaining hot spots."
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A brief 8pm update from NWT Fire via my colleague Claire: "Can confirm no homes lost. Suppression action continues. Crews making good progress."
If tonight is making you think about Firesmarting, you can sign up for an assessment of your home that's totally free. Learn about that here.
We'll also have an article in the morning about firefighter recruitment, which I know is a big deal in a lot of communities right now. Plenty of people out doing their fitness tests.
No update from the ground for the past little while.
How the NWT handles wildfires at the intersection between communities (which have their own firefighters) and forests (where the GNWT's crews are in charge) is a whole thing. I was at a conference last month where the wildland-urban interface, as it's known, was discussed in a lot of detail.
Alberta has made some big advances in figuring out how you collaborate to tackle wildfires right at the edge of communities. It's tricky because those two sets of firefighters often speak different languages, use different gear and have slightly different skill sets, so getting them to work together as efficiently as possible needs planning and training.
We'll have an article in the coming days that looks at this in more detail. What's happening in Fort Smith tonight, with town and GNWT crews both tackling this fire, is an example of why getting those crews super familiar with each other – and the way each crew works – is so important.
These two images might help illustrate where the fire is. You can see Primrose Lane in the top of the first image, which is a still from the video we just published below.
The second image is a Google Maps screengrab showing Primrose Lane and other streets. The fire is in the wooded area to the right.
That video is from about 6:30pm, we were just told, so it's showing the situation from 40 or so minutes ago.
Watch that video just below till the end and you'll get a very good sense of exactly where the fire is in relation to the eastern edge of Fort Smith.
