The race is on to get out of Yellowknife, capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories, as wildfires advance on the city. The whole city population has been ordered to evacuate by midday Friday 18 August, in what is the first ever full withdrawal from a capital.
That means 20,000 people are hitting the one highway in and out of town – or are heading to the airport to board evacuation flights, which began at local lunchtime Thursday. Ten planes left the city before the end of the day, taking 1500 residents with them.
While authorities said the evacuation had been called early and “phased”, with some neighbourhoods told to leave earlier than others, the reality on the ground is that the main road is jammed with traffic while Mayor Rebecca Alty has warned that the route could be closed at any time. More local evacuation centres are full and people are now having to drive to Leduc, Alberta, 15 hours away.
1. Incredibly difficult time
“Conditions will be smoky, and residents should drive with caution and care,” she added. “This is an incredibly difficult time for everyone. Please look out and help one another as you can. If you’re driving, and have space, please consider bringing a friend or pets.” Residents are using social media groups to liaise with neighbours.
Alty also reminded residents to bring supplies of food and water in case of delays. Hundreds of people slept in their cars around a service station carpark whose manager, Linda Croft, said had seen traffic since early Wednesday “It’s lined up right back along the highway, no end in sight,” she said.
2. Exploding trees, melting cars, and wildlife burned alive
If you’re wondering what it’s like driving in such conditions, Garth Carman, escaping with his 16 cats, described upsetting scenes to CBC as like “the apocalypse”. Bears and other wildlife lay charred on the side of the road and a “wall of flames just washed over the highway”.
Like something dreamt up by the special effects team of a disaster movie “trees just began exploding in the fire – poof, poof, poof – one after the other, coming towards us. It was hell driving through this,” he said.
Cars were melting, windscreens cracking and filling with smoke, according to a woman whose family escaped the town of Hay River on Sunday, speaking to CBC.
3. Within 16km and “burning deep and hot”
Now 163,000 hectares wide (402,000 acres), the fire, which authorities have been trying to control for a month, is less than 16km from Yellowknife. Four and a half hours away by car, south of the Hay River, the town of Entreprise, has been 90% destroyed already.
“This fire has burned deep, this fire has burned hot, and it has found ways through multiple different sets of established [control] lines,” said the Northwest Territories fire information officer Mike Westwick.
Shane Thompson, a government representative for the Northern Territories, tried to reassure people, telling a news conference: “I want to be clear that the city is not in immediate danger and there’s a safe window for residents to leave the city by road and by air.” Rain is forecast, which could help the situation but, he added, “[w]without rain, it is possible [the fire] will reach the city outskirts by the weekend.”
4. Only 400km from Arctic Circle
236 fires are burning in the Northwest Territories, and 5,700 fires are burning more than 137,000 square kilometers (53,000 square miles) from one end of Canada to the other, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
It is Canada’s worst ever wildfire season. What will be shocking for many to realise is that Yellowknife is only around 250 miles (402km) south of the Arctic Circle.
