NWT Fire issues map showing how far Fort Simpson fire has burned

NWT Fire has provided the first detailed assessment of where fire FS016 outside Fort Simpson has burned to date.

The perimeter map released on Thursday afternoon illustrates the progress of the wildfire’s edge based on satellite and airborne GSP tracking, the wildfire agency stated in a news release.

“The entire area inside the perimeter is not completely burned,” NWT Fire noted. Instead, the red line shows “where the furthest areas of wildfire are currently.”

Until now, it has been difficult – even for some people still in the community – to fully understand the extent of the fire’s movement in recent days.

On Thursday, the Village of Fort Simpson told residents fire FS016 is burning close to Highway 1 near the Wildrose area of the community.

“It has not moved much in the last few days, but with a bad wind change it could become a significant threat,” the village incident command stated on Thursday morning.

“As of this moment, the situation could go any number of ways. The reality at this point is the fire is still active over a very large area and until it can be contained completely, it will be unsafe to return.”

With little rain in the forecast for the next week, the village said residents should expect that the evacuation “will last another two weeks from today, and if we are able to return earlier it will be a nice surprise.”

‘Still a definite threat’

Forrest Tower, the fire information officer for FS016, said NWT Fire planned to have helicopters and skimmers in the air on Thursday if smoke conditions allowed, with ground crews working in the vicinity of Wildrose with heavy equipment.

Those crews may use drip torches to create controlled ignitions that remove remaining fuel, bringing the burn area up to the fire guard in the hope of avoiding an uncontrolled fire there in future.

“The relative humidity really increased, so the air got a lot more moisture in it just from lower temperatures, and we’re not expecting really super high temperatures today,” Tower told Cabin Radio on Thursday morning.

“Today, crews will just keep working in those areas. We’re not expecting a lot of fire behaviour that would pose any threat.

“We have the time to go in and do work now, so still lots of time left for those areas to be more secure, but crews are in there and they’re working as fast as possible. There’s still a definite threat to the community from this fire. It’s obviously stressful for people to be away from their home – as much as we can, as fast as possible, that work is being done, but it takes time to make sure that we have those areas really secure, so that people can come back.”

Wrigley fire ‘dormant’

Pehdzéh Kı̨ First Nation Chief Jamie Moses described fire FS015 as “dormant” after another 9.4 mm of rain and with temperatures having cooled off.

Chief Moses said the community’s evacuation order was set to remain through the weekend until more “important work” is done on the fire. So far, neither evacuation has any fixed end date.

“We are applying and asking for more financial resources for our members so hopefully we can get answers soon and find a way to get those resources out,” Moses wrote. “I know everyone wants to get home but I feel that this is the right decision.”

Shannon Graf, the fire information officer for FS015, said crews were spending Thursday evaluating the impact of fresh rainfall.

“The fire has not moved any closer to town so at this point, we’ve got people going out to just reassess and determine our next move,” Graf said.

“We want to see how the fire is acting, if it’s safe to put crews on the ground.”