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The Community Government of Whatì says residents can come home from 10am on Saturday after a week-long evacuation over wildfire ZF048 to the southwest.
In a Friday afternoon announcement, community leaders said Whatì’s council had decided “after a careful assessment” that conditions were safe for people to return.
An evacuation order had been issued on August 29 for Whatì’s 600 or so residents.
A planned burn just south of Whatì’s airstrip earlier this week has held firm, creating a larger barrier between the community and the front line of the fire itself, seven kilometres away.
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Essential workers had already returned on Friday, community leaders said, with residents to begin returning the following day.
Hundreds of people have been staying with friends and family or in cots at evacuation centres in Behchokǫ̀ and Yellowknife. The Behchokǫ̀ centre closed earlier this week, with affected evacuees moved to the territorial capital.
Yellowknife’s own evacuation centre will close at noon on Sunday, September 7, the city said on Friday afternoon.
City Hall said it was working with the NWT government “to ensure remaining Fort Providence evacuees receive continued support.”
The city initially said the fieldhouse and multiplex would reopen before the end of the coming week, but then sent an update stating only the Northwestel field in the fieldhouse will remain temporarily closed. “All other amenities and programs within the fieldhouse and multiplex will reopen to the public on Monday,” the city added.
