Whatì wildfire: Officials go door to door to help community prepare

Whatì remains on evacuation alert on Thursday, with officials trying to prepare people for the worst even as conditions appeared to improve slightly.

ZF048, an out-of-control wildfire, has burned more than 10,000 hectares to the community’s southwest.

NWT Fire has called ZF048 the territory’s “number one priority fire.” Satellite tracking suggested hotspots from the fire’s northeastern edge were seven to eight kilometres from Whatì’s airstrip as of 6am on Thursday.

In an interview with Cabin Radio at 10am, Whatì senior administrative officer Sherbaz Muhammad said he thought an evacuation order was “unlikely.”

“Right now, it’s better than yesterday. I mean, of course, it’s still not the best, but I would say in terms of this evacuation alert, it’s still in effect but it doesn’t look like we will be evacuating,” Muhammad said.

Fire crews have been working to protect Whatì, with a focus on neighbourhoods at the edge of the community and critical infrastructure. The local fire department has set up a perimeter wetline at the community’s bypass road running to the lake.

Winds are expected from the north on Thursday, which could turn the fire back on itself, but winds from the south are forecast to return on Friday.

“Today is a good day to get some work done,” NWT Fire’s Mike Westwick told Cabin Radio from Whatì just before 11am.

“North winds are pushing the fire away from the community, there’s better visibility, so we’ve got aircraft up in the air where can you attack the fire, and we’re in the community preparing for the potential for another challenging day tomorrow with south winds.”

Sprinklers have been set up at the edge of the community and have been tested over recent days, Westwick said. “We’re going to continue to bolster those defences and and make this place ready in case the fire does approach in the coming days.”

More: Cabin Radio Weather

Muhammad said a clean air shelter has been set up, a local emergency organization had been activated, and officials were going door to door to help residents prepare in case the situation worsens.

“Possible evacuation means at least registering people at our end, looking at each and every household – what they need from us, from our other partners,” he said, listing the Tłı̨chǫ Government and NWT government as examples.

“We’ve been making sure of who needs what – do they require transportation, translation, clothing, childcare? Are there any medical issues? The same goes for people requiring health or hospitalized care.”

Kim Riles, chief executive officer of the NWT’s health authority, told Cabin Radio on Wednesday evening that the authority and an emergency response team were working with the Tłı̨chǫ Community Services Agency in case an evacuation becomes necessary.

“We’ve been providing situation report updates internally,” Riles said, “and we’ll continue to work with them to support what that looks like.”

The Tłı̨chǫ Animal Care Society has been working to help dog owners in Whatì with crates and potential placements for their pets if an evacuation is ordered.

“It gets tricky,” said Muhammad.

“We don’t want to scare people but again – telling people we’re talking about a possible evacuation – not everybody does understand. So locally, we did door to door registrations. Elders were involved, Tłı̨chǫ language speakers were involved.”

The community issued an evacuation notice on Monday afternoon with the fire’s edge 15 km away. That was upgraded to an evacuation alert on Wednesday afternoon after the fire moved four kilometres closer overnight.

Whatì’s Mezi Community School said on Thursday morning it would be “closed until further notice” because of the wildfire situation. Later, the school said it would briefly reopen on Thurday afternoon with early dismissal at 2:20pm.

Drought has eradicated water barriers

Westwick is expecting south winds gusting up to 35 km/h on Friday, which are “the toughest winds on this fire.”

“That’s obviously a concerning weather forecast, and that’s why we’re ensuring we’re in a good position to have water delivery at the edge of the community here and keep this place safe,” he said.

One issue is the territory’s years-long drought has wiped out water features that might previously have helped offer a barrier to the fire.

“There’s a lot of water bodies on the map that aren’t actually water bodies any more because of the drought that we’ve been facing,” said Westwick, but a narrow river and some bays of Lac La Martre could offer some assistance to crews.

About 10 members of Whatì’s fire department and public works department are involved in the work, Westwick said, alongside three NWT Fire crews with a fourth on the way. Multiple pieces of heavy equipment are working to widen fuel breaks.

An ignition specialist is in place in case of opportunities for “defensive ignitions” to prevent growth toward the community, Westwick added, as is an incident management team. Three helicopters are assigned to the fire alongside air tankers “whenever visibility allows.”

“There are a good amount of people here working hard, working to keep this place safe,” he said.