The Northwest Territories fire department said Yellowknife, with a population of 20,000, was not facing an imminent threat despite fast-moving fires coming within 20km of the regional capital.
No alert or evacuation has been ordered for the city but officials declared a state of emergency late Monday to facilitate receiving additional resources.
Wildfire official Mike Westwick told a news conference that fighting fires in the near Arctic is “especially challenging” due to the vast size of the region and its sparse population, with few access roads.
“It’s difficult to get crews and equipment in,” he explained.
This season, megafires have spread across Canada with remarkable intensity, forcing 168,000 to flee their homes and scorching 13.5 million hectares – almost twice the area of the last record of 7.3 million hectares, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).
Four people have died so far in this year’s wildfires.
As of Tuesday, there were nearly 1,100 fires still burning, including more than 230 in the Northwest Territories.
In westernmost British Columbia province, meanwhile, a heatwave has sent temperatures soaring to over 40 degrees Celsius, hampering efforts to bring wildfires under control.
Temperatures, however, are not expected to top a record set in June 2021, when the mercury in Lytton hit 49.6 degrees Celsius before the village was destroyed days later by a fire that killed two residents.
Source: CNA
