Residents are being forced to leave their homes in Canada’s Northwest Territories as wildfire closes in.
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“Unprecedented” wildfires closing in on the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories prompted citywide evacuations by land and sky Thursday, officials said.
Officials instructed residents of the highest-risk areas of Yellowknife – Ingraham Trail, Dettah, Kam Lake, Grace Lake and Engle Business District – to evacuate immediately, while others had until Friday afternoon to leave the city of about 20,000 people. The fire was about 10 miles out as the evacuation order was issued late Wednesday to Yellowknife and neighboring First Nations communities of Ndilo and Dettah.
“We’re all tired of the word unprecedented, yet there is no other way to describe this situation in the Northwest Territories,” Caroline Cochrane, premier of the Northwest Territories, said late Wednesday.
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