Fort Providence has issued an Evacuation Alert after strong winds swept the fire towards the community. The wildfire has crossed the highway. Area residents are being advised to be prepared to evacuate on short notice if an order is issued by local authorities or NWT Fire officials.
“Fort Providence is now under an evacuation alert due to extraordinary growth on this fire. It has crossed highway 3 and is growing closer to Fort Providence. A structure protection team is working to set up sprinklers and water cannons to protect the community. As of this update, Infrastructure has closed highway 3 from Fort Providence to the Hwy 9 junction. This fire is causing heavy smoke in Hay River due to strong winds blowing in their direction,” said NWT Fire.
Community members are advised to be prepared to evacuate in case conditions worsen and an evacuation order is issued.
“Residents of Fort Providence should be ready to evacuate on short notice due to a wildfire in the area. This is currently an alert to prepare. If you need to evacuate, an order will be issued with further information. Updates from the Hamlet of Fort Providence will be put on Facebook on the Fort Providence Announcements & Events page,” said officials this evening.
Mayor Danny Beaulieu of Fort Providence posted these updates at about 10 p.m. MT on the community’s facebook page:
“The fire is still straight north 18 km from town. The southwest side of the fire is not moving fast as burning through swampland and creeks. The southeast side hit the highway at km 63 this morning and crossed the highway with the strong NW winds. We drove on the hwy and met the fire at km 50 and checked again later and fire was at km 42,” said Mayor Beaulieu.
Preparations are being put in place and residents are encouraged to fill in an evacuation registration form at the Community Hall. The form is also accessible online on the GNWT site at www.gov.nt.ca/en/form/evac
“We had a meeting at 6:30 with the Chief, nurses, rcmp and MACA and decided to maintain the Evacuation Alert. Over 100 people registered with Britanny Nadli and Rochelle Sanderson at the community hall to advise where they would be going if evacuation occurs. If people do not have transportation, 2 buses are arriving tomorrow at the Snowshoe Inn. Registration will be open again at community hall tomorrow. If people do not have a place to stay, Hay River will be set up as an evacuation center,” said Mayor Beaulieu.
Additional crews are arriving to assist NWT Fire and the local fire department to clear the brush areas and install structure protections.
“There is a structure protection crew from Alberta in town setting up sprinklers on the back road. There are 2 bulldozers working on the fireguard as well as 2 mulchers widening the fire guard. Tomorrow 4 more bulldozers arrive and a big lawnmower to cut grass and brush on area fire smarted around the edge of town last year. An excavator going to dig holes for water on the fireguard and extra crews will come to lay hose on the fireguard and prepare for a backburn.”
The mayor assured the town that winds were calm and are forecasted to shift to southwards until tomorrow afternoon.
Mayor Beaulieu also urged the communtiy to be ready in case an Evacuation Order is issued.
Earlier this week, crews advised that the fire SS014, located about 14 km northeast of Fort Providence, would likely see increased activity.
Yesterday, the fire did not grow as much as crews had anticipated, but officials had warned that strong winds could mean a risk of the blaze’s expansion.
As a precautionary measure, crews began the process of setting up structure protection yesterday around Fort Providence with a sprinkler system.
The North Slave, South Slave and Dehcho regions are seeing persisting wildfire activity in the last days of August due to record-breaking heat creating “aggressive fire weather,” Wildland Fire crews reported.
Yesterday, Whatì leadership called a state of emergency and issued an evacuation order due to fire ZF048, which has seen increased fire activity in an extended unseasonably hot, windy and dry conditions visiting the N.W.T.. All Whatì residents were required to evacuate the area yesterday morning.
