Advertisement.
NWT Fire says efforts to fight a wildfire outside Fort Simpson have been “pretty successful” so far but cautioned an evacuation alert remains in place for the village.
In a 10:55am Saturday call with Cabin Radio, fire information officer Thomas Bentham said fire FS016 had only “limited growth” to the north and east – toward the village and its airport – once efforts to suppress it began on Friday evening.
The fire remains between eight and nine kilometres from the airstrip. An incident management team is due to arrive on Saturday, at least two 20-person teams of wildland firefighters are expected to join existing crews this weekend and Hay River is sending a specialist wildland-urban interface crew to help protect the community, Bentham said.
The evacuation alert remains in place. “Nothing has changed on that front,” said Bentham. “The headline here is it was a good effort last night. The two groups of air tankers, they ran until about 11pm, until their time ran out. It was a very good job by everyone. We are on this.”
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
FS016 grew quickly on Friday evening after being triggered by a lightning storm.
The sequence of events was striking to some residents, who experienced a large dump of rain from the storm before being told they were on evacuation alert. The village is in an area considered “abnormally dry” in drought terms.
The Village of Fort Simpson’s latest advice, on Facebook, instructs residents to pre-register for a possible evacuation using this GNWT form. Registration was also taking place at the village recreation centre as of 11am on Saturday.
Organizers of a Run for Reading literacy and recreation event due to take place in the village on Saturday said they had postponed it. Organizers of a planned hide camp said they would assess conditions on Saturday before providing an update.
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
A hot weekend is forecast in Fort Simpson, though Environment Canada’s forecast changed slightly overnight.
Federal forecasters now expect weekend highs of 32C – a little cooler than previously predicted, if still very warm – with the prospect of isolated showers on both days.
Further thunderstorms aren’t out of the question, with forecasters assessing a minor risk of more unsettled weather in the region on Saturday.
