FIRE REACHES EVACUATED NWT TOWN, BUT OFFICIALS SAY NO REPORTS OF STRUCTURE DAMAGE

This article was written by the Canadian Press and was published in the Globe & Mail on June 17, 2024.

A wildfire that forced the evacuation of a remote town in the Northwest Territories this weekend has now reached the community, but officials say there have been no reports of burned structures.

In online updates, NWT Fire says the blaze threatening Fort Good Hope grew from two square kilometres on Saturday to an estimated nine square kilometres Sunday.

But it says crews were able to hold the fire back long enough on Saturday to allow moisture levels to rise in the area as nighttime set in, which it says meant less intense fire activity when the fire reached the community’s edge.

Residents of Fort Good Hope, which is home to about 500 residents, were told to evacuate Saturday due to the wildfire which, at the time, was burning less than two kilometres from the community, and evacuees were directed to Norman Wells.

NWT Fire says crews established some structure protection overnight Saturday and additional equipment is arriving Sunday, adding lighter winds should mean less extreme activity.

The territory says the fire is human-caused and started 3.8 kilometres northeast of the community.

Author: Ray Nakano

Ray is a retired, third generation Japanese Canadian born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. He resides in Toronto where he worked for the Ontario Government for 28 years. Ray was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2011 and practises in the Plum Village tradition, supporting sanghas in their mindfulness practice. Ray is very concerned about our climate crisis. He has been actively involved with the ClimateFast group (https://climatefast.ca) for the past 5 years. He works to bring awareness of our climate crisis to others and motivate them to take action. He has created the myclimatechange.home.blog website, for tracking climate-related news articles, reports, and organizations. He has created mobilizecanada.ca to focus on what you can do to address the climate crisis. He is always looking for opportunities to reach out to communities, politicians, and governments to communicate about our climate crisis and what we need to do. He says: “Our world is in dire straits. We have to bend the curve on our heat-trapping pollutants in the next few years if we hope to avoid the most serious impacts of human-caused global warming. Doing nothing is not an option. We must do everything we can to create a livable future for our children, our grandchildren, and all future generations.”