With a fire this close to Fort Simpson, what will firefighters do?

With wildfire FS016 now just several hundred metres from Fort Simpson at its closest point, fire information officer Forrest Tower says firefighters actually have a better chance to access the fire front.

In a Tuesday interview, Tower said firefighters previously had trouble accessing the fire because they had to use helicopters, but heavy smoke had halted flights.

According to an NWT Fire update on Tuesday morning, FS016 had crossed Highway 1 and burned to the Mackenzie River and a snye outside the village.

Winds had shifted to come from the northeast and were pushing the fire away from the community again.

There are some benefits to the fire having behaved the way it did during Monday evening’s intense burn, officials said.

“Even though it’s very scary for people to have fire burn as aggressively as it did, it kind-of reduced the amount of fuel available,” said Tower.

Fire crews can access the fire using roads now, and Tower said they will focus on extinguishing spots along the fire edge.

“There’s a bit more ability to respond and get closer to the fire at this point,” he said.

Tower said 21 structure protection personnel will arrive in Fort Simpson with resources to join the 62 structure protection personnel already working in the village. Fire crews will continue to set up structure protection in the Wild Rose and Gill Crescent areas, which are considered the most vulnerable if winds throw embers toward the community.

There is also better visibility on Tuesday, which NWT Fire said meant aerial operations can begin. The morning, Tower said, would be spent gathering information. NWT Fire said air tankers, skimmers and helicopters will be able to work in priority areas adjacent to the community.

For firefighters on the fire’s edge, Tower said water access is a challenge because crews are sometimes too far from the Mackenzie River to pump water.

Tower said crews will use hand tools and hand ignitions along an unburnt strip of fuel near the village to “carefully get rid of that remaining fuel.” That means if the wind direction changes later, the fire will have little or nothing left to burn through that would help carry it the remaining distance toward the community.

Crews will similarly try to complete burns up to control lines like the highway, pockets of water or deciduous trees. That way, Tower said, “if we do get winds that pick up, there’s just no more fuel that the fire can really find to cast embers or cross the highway into the community.”

He said crews may also head out on Tuesday afternoon to assess other fires affecting the two highways east of Fort Simpson.

Temperatures in Fort Simpson are forecast to remain at or below 23C for the remainder of the week, significantly cooler than recent days, with a chance of showers in the next 48 hours. However, there’s also the risk of more unsettled and stormy weather that could complicate firefighting efforts.

The current forecast suggests the wind direction could become more challenging to crews from Thursday afternoon onward.