The capital of Canada's Northwest Territories was virtually deserted after nearly all the residents of the city of just over 20,000 fled as a huge wildfire burned nearby.
To the south, in British Columbia, thousands more people were told to leave their homes while firefighters battled a growing fire that set homes ablaze. Officials in Northwest Territories said Friday evening that about 19,000 people had left Yellowknife in less than 48 hours, with about 15,000 driving out in convoys and 3,800 leaving on emergency flights.
바카라I described today as another marathon sprint,바카라 Yellowknife Mayor Rebecca Alty said. 바카라It's draining and, unfortunately, it's not letting up yet.바카라 About 2,600 people were still in the city 바카라 1,000 of them essential workers, authorities said.Shane Thompson, the territory's minister of environment and climate change, said the wildfire situation remained critical and the non-emergency personnel who stayed were endangering themselves and others. 바카라Please get out now,바카라 he said.
Streets were nearly empty and stores shuttered. 바카라It's a ghost town,바카라 said Kieron Testart, who was going door to door in the nearby First Nation communities of Dettah and NDilo to check on people. A grocery store and a pharmacy remained open Friday but were expected to close. The last gas station still operating shut down in the afternoon. One bar was still open, drawing exhausted workers at the end of long shifts.
바카라It's kind of like having a pint at the end of the world,바카라 Testart said. Cooler temperatures and higher humidity helped firefighters keep the wildfire from advancing Friday, holding it 15 kilometres northwest of the city's outskirts, fire information officer Mike Westwick said.
바카라For the first time in a while, we got a little bit of help from weather,바카라 he said. But he warned that emergency officials still fear weather conditions could change and propel the fire 바카라 one of hundreds raging in the territory 바카라 to the city limits. Eleven air tankers bombed water onto the flames and another plane dropped fire retardant. A 10-kilometre (6-mile) fire line was dug, and firefighters deployed 20 kilometres (12 miles) of hose and a plethora of pumps in the fight to keep the fire at bay.
It is 바카라the most extensive heavy water operation we've ever seen in the territory,바카라 Westwick said. The fire, caused by lightning more than a month ago, is about 1,670 square kilometres and 바카라not going away anytime soon,바카라 Westwick said. He said the blaze had jumped three different containment lines, fuelled by dry weather and dense forests. Hundreds of kilometres south of Yellowknife, homes burned in West Kelowna, British Columbia, a city of about 38,000, after a wildfire grew 바카라exponentially worse바카라 than expected overnight, officials said.
Premier David Eby declared a state of emergency for the province because of the rapidly evolving wildfire situation. 바카라We are in for an extremely challenging situation in the days ahead,바카라 Eby said at a news conference Friday evening. He said the decree would give authorities a number of legal tools, including the power to prevent people from travelling into dangerous areas and ensure access to accommodations for evacuees and heavy equipment for fighting the fires.
Officials in West Kelowna already ordered people to evacuate 2,400 properties and alerted an additional 4,800 properties to be ready to leave. The BC Wildfire Service said the fire stretched over 68 square kilometres. No casualties had been reported, but some first responders became trapped while rescuing people who failed to evacuate, said Jason Brolund, chief of the West Kelowna fire department.
바카라There were a number of risks taken to save lives and property last night,바카라 Brolund said at a news conference Friday, describing how first responders had to rescue people who jumped into a lake to avoid the flames. 바카라It didn't have to be that way.바카라 Bowinn Ma, the province's minister of emergency management, said at a news briefing Friday afternoon that 바카라we are still faced with great challenges.바카라
바카라I was deeply horrified to witness the distressing images emerging from West Kelowna,바카라 she said. 바카라The past 24 hours have been incredibly challenging for the people across the province." Canada has seen a record number of wildfires this year 바카라 contributing to choking smoke in parts of the United States 바카라 with more than 5,700 fires burning more than 137,000 square kilometres from one end of Canada to the other, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
As of Friday morning, more than 1,000 wildfires were burning across the country, over half of them out of control. About 6,800 people in eight other communities in the Northwest Territories had already evacuated their homes, including the small community of Enterprise, which was largely destroyed. Officials said everyone made it out alive.
A woman whose family evacuated the town of Hay River on Sunday told CBC that their vehicle began to melt as they drove through embers, the front window cracked and the vehicle filled with smoke that made it difficult to see the road ahead. 바카라I was obviously scared the tire was going to break, our car was going to catch on fire and then it went from just embers to full smoke,바카라 said Lisa Mundy, who was travelling with her husband and their 6-year-old and 18-month-old children. She said they called 911 after they drove into the ditch a couple of times. She said her son kept saying: 바카라I don't want to die, mommy.바카라
