Fort Simpson wildfire heads south to airport perimeter

The wildfire burning next to Fort Simpson was pushed south by the wind on Saturday to the edge of the village airfield. No homes are confirmed lost, NWT Fire said at 6:30pm.

The Village of Fort Simpson has started a damage assessment and is notifying people where necessary, the territory’s wildfire agency said.

Airport infrastructure “has not been directly impacted” but smoke interfered with its operations, the evening update added, though all aircraft were moved before the smoke intervened.

Wildfire FS016 was being blown north-to-south by winds on Saturday. By the start of the day it had reached some Fort Simpson neighbourhoods south of the main village, even though no homes have burned.

Speaking on Saturday morning, fire information officer Forrest Tower said the focus remained on homes in those southern areas.

With fire having already reached those neighbourhoods, crews protecting buildings had to adjust their plans to anticipate flames being pushed south by the wind instead of more to the east, as they were on Friday.

About 65 people were assigned to the task of protecting homes in areas like the Wild Rose subdivision, which has been most at threat from the fire all week.

“It’s a pretty tight working space, it’s small residential roads. It’s not a giant area,” said Tower. “They have all of their pumps, hoses and water sources, the fire engines – you can’t put too much in there, or else they’re not able to do their patrols and move around.

“The fact that they were able to limit any damage, or I should say full loss, to residential areas [on Friday] is pretty impressive.”

On Friday, crews had to work around the clock to restrict the fire to wooded areas near homes. While the homes survived, some will have damage from radiant heat, Tower said.

A fresh crew of 20 wildland firefighters is due to arrive on Sunday, adding to well over 100 people already assigned to FS016.

Fort Simpson has now been under an evacuation order for almost a week, a situation officials do not expect will change soon.

“There is a lot of work on this fire when we zoom out high level for thinking about full extinguishment,” said Tower.

“Honestly, for this fire, it’s going to be burning for several weeks – if not longer than that. There is a lot of work on the wildland side and when we do see fire behaviour pick up, in the intensity that it did yesterday, you can’t have people in front of it that are not structural fire departments with full breathing apparatus and PPE.”

Structural firefighters from multiple communities are part of the team fighting FS016. Known as wildland-urban interface crews in this setting, they are part of a new NWT initiative to join forces and develop expertise in fighting fires at the boundary between forests and communities.

“If it gets really aggressive, even they have to pull out at times, but they can stick around a bit longer than wildland firefighters in the smoke,” said Tower.

‘Definitely not over yet’

Saturday’s main objective, he said, was to protect homes in residential areas south of the village’s island while dealing with a spot fire that crossed over to the north end of the island on Friday.

“This fire is going to continue to grow, likely to the south,” said Tower.

“There is active fire burning south of Wild Rose in some pretty timbered area but, for the most part, there’s not another block of residential areas that are right in the way – so it’ll continue to grow but if we can continue to have success in the Wild Rose area, that’s great.”

The challenge with many fires like this one, he said, “is actually the second or third day after the wildfire moves through.”

Those “are really hard to deal with for structure crews, because you’re dealing with embers that have been potentially caught under decks, or it’s really hard to see where there are small bits of fire that are burning around,” said Tower.

“It doesn’t take much for a deck to catch on fire, a fence to catch on fire. We had good success last night, but it’s definitely not over yet in terms of work that needs to be done in those areas.”

On Saturday afternoon, Fort Simpson’s council issued a statement making plain that a return home is not imminent.

“Although firefighting efforts continue to make progress, the situation remains dynamic and weather conditions can change rapidly,” that statement read.

“Access to Fort Simpson remains restricted, and barricades remain in place to prevent unauthorized entry into the community and protect both residents and emergency personnel.

“The state of emergency remains in effect. At this time, residents should not make plans to return to Fort Simpson. The village will provide clear public notice as soon as it is safe to do so and emergency officials determine that re-entry can begin.”