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The approaching wildfire is forcing Yellowknife residents to evacuate their homes and seek safety elsewhere.
The wildfire is burning closer and the Northwest Territories government has ordered residents to evacuate.
But they have very few options to escape the city. Flights start on Thursday afternoon but are limited to those who can’t drive or have health issues, according to the evacuation order.
There is only one road out of Yellowknife that leads away from the encroaching fire. And that route south passes through territory already scorched by the flames – and through the burned town of Enterprise, now all but destroyed.
With closer areas facing an even greater threat or filling up with other evacuees, the 20,000 residents of Yellowknife – who account for just about half of the province’s total population – must travel far to secure shelter.
There are only a few gas stations along the route. The closest one to Yellowknife is in Fort Providence, roughly 300 kilometres away.
Yellowknife resident Bill Braden said he’s bringing an extra 40 litres of fuel so he can hopefully bypass that gas station.
He said a family member told him the lineup stretched a kilometre in length and took several hours.
On the side of the highway just south of the provincial border near Steen River, Alberta Wildfire staff set up a rest stop handing out bottled water and a Petro Canada tanker truck was set up as a makeshift gas station.
The province said the transportation ministry organised fuel resources and Alberta Wildfire donated the crates of water.
“As you know, during this record breaking wildfire season Alberta received support from across the country, and we are more than happy to help with the hard work happening in the NWT now,” the province said in a statement Thursday.
Those fleeing south are faced with a great deal of uncertainty.
“The big worry, the big thought in the back of everybody’s mind is, ‘When will we be able to come back?’ and ‘What are we going to come back to?’” Braden told Global News, speaking from his living room as he packed for the evacuation Thursday morning.
The N.W.T. government has urged residents to stay with family or to find accommodations in Valleyview, Fox Creek or Red Deer, Alta. – each more than 1,000 kilometres away.
Braden said his family is planning to stay with relatives in Grand Prairie, Alta., which is a 12-to 15-hour drive.
He told Global News having the highway safe and clear is “absolutely essential because there’s no other option.”
“If the wind carries the smoke over those roads, and I think I’m anticipating that everybody was slowing down to a crawl, we will keep moving and we will get through it.”
At a news conference on Wednesday night, N.W.T Environment Minister Shane Thompson stressed that the road is safe to drive.
“There is a time to evacuate safely and this is exactly what we’re planning on doing,” he said, telling residents to leave by noon on Friday.
“If you’re able to and plan to leave by road, pilot vehicles will help guide drivers through smokier areas immediately outside the city.”
He also said residents should not evacuate by boat because air quality is expected to get worse.
“There’s been a great exodus of vehicles out of here, actually since, really, almost on Tuesday,” Braden said.
He said he was very optimistic he’d be able to return – but added that the fire approached so rapidly and the evacuation order was issued so suddenly, he hasn’t had time to contemplate any alternative.
“It’s almost inconceivable … that there will be that level of loss and destruction,” he said, speaking of Enterprise.
He said he couldn’t deny something similar being a possibility, “but to grind ourselves into that rabbit hole right now … would be a very trying situation right now.”
— With a file from Paula Tran, Global News
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