Yellowknife residents flee and Western Canada fires spark new evacuations

YELLOWKNIFE, Northwest Territories/EDMONTON, Aug 18 (Reuters) – Residents from the remote northern Canadian city of Yellowknife scrambled to get out of town before flames blocked their exit on Friday, while another wildfire in the western province of British Columbia prompted new evacuation orders.

A state of emergency was declared early on Friday in Kelowna, a city some 300 kilometres (180 miles) east of Vancouver with a population of about 150,000. The Pacific province said the next 24 to 48 hours could be the most difficult.

Some of the hills around the city blazed in the predawn light after wildfires that had been burning since Tuesday jumped Lake Okanagan and spread into parts of Kelowna.

“Residents under Evacuation Alert are advised to be ready to leave their home at a moment’s notice,” the city said in a statement. More than 2,400 properties were being evacuated, officials said.

The expanse of fires and disruption to life and land underscore the severity of this year’s worst-on-record Canadian wildfire season, with more than 1,000 active fires burning across the country.

Some 885 miles (1,425 km) to the northeast, the massive blaze threatening Yellowknife, the Northwest Territories’ capital city, made little progress on Thursday, but changing winds meant it could reach the outskirts by the weekend, said Mike Westwick, the territories’ fire information officer.

“The next two days are absolutely critical and will be some of the most challenging of the season,” he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC) early on Friday.

“We’re going to be putting everything we have into slowing that progression down. We’re going to be throwing aircraft at it, and when it’s safe, we’re going to be throwing people at it,” Westwick said.

The fire is about 15 km (9 miles) northwest of the city, but changing winds are expected to drive it closer. Fires have been burning on either side of the only highway out of town, but it remained open.

“Leaving Yellowknife, you’re driving into the smoke,” said Brent Saulnier, who had been visiting the city from neighboring Alberta. “It is on fire on both sides of the road. … It’s a very surreal experience.”

Many still must leave the city of around 20,000 with the deadline for evacuation set at noon local time (1800 GMT).

“The noon deadline doesn’t mean that the highway closes at noon,” Yellowknife Mayor Rebecca Alty said in an interview with CBC. “We’re just really encouraging folks to go as soon as possible. The highway will continue to be open as long as it’s safe.”

Flights will also continue after the deadline, Alty said.

“Residents really need to leave now because as everybody knows the fire is approaching the municipality” and could arrive by the weekend, she said.

Some 10 evacuation planes ferried about 1,500 people out of Yellowknife on Thursday, and about 22 flights were due out on Friday, authorities said. The Canadian military flew out 79 people on Thursday and has more flights scheduled for Friday.

Around 65% of the 46,000 total population of Northwest Territories looked set to be evacuated.

Responding to complaints that Facebook parent company Meta Platform’s blocking of vital news about the fires amid a dispute with the federal government over a law demanding income-sharing with local media, Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez on Friday urged Meta to allow news to be shared.

Firefighting teams were cutting down vegetation to create fire breaks, setting up sprinkler systems, and setting deliberate fires to eliminate fuel before the bigger blaze approaches, Westwick said.

DRY CONDITIONS

Experts say climate change has exacerbated the wildfire problem. Drought and high temperatures have been a contributing factor to the number and intensity of this year’s fires, officials say. Much of Canada has seen abnormally dry conditions.

As the number of evacuees in Grande Prairie and St. Albert, on the northern outskirts of Edmonton, increased, both cities announced their centers reached their full capacities and redirected all arriving evacuees to a new center in Leduc south of the provincial capital of Edmonton.

Among them was the Gour family from the town of Hay River.

When they received an alert on their phones while camping out, the family was left uncertain about where their son, Liam, 13, was going to land as he was returning from a cadet trip in the neighboring territory of Yukon.

As the family made their way toward Alberta, what mattered most to Paula Gour was her family.

“The only thing that I had in mind was that I had the kids, the dogs, and we had each other and just to get out of there. That’s all you can really think about at that time,” she said.

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