City plans in place in case of forest fire emergency
Public safety director: Residents would not be asked to gather in central location, despite national media reports
Simon Whitehouse
Northern News Services
Published Friday, July 18, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
City residents are under no immediate risk of forest fires, according to the city, but an emergency response is well planned for if area blazes get out of control.
The territorial government closed Highway 3 from Behchoko to Fort Providence Wednesday morning due to a major fire in the Chan Lake area and it has raised concern among residents that the city may be in danger.
"The last few days, the DOT has been escorting vehicles through the fire between Bechoko and Fort Providence whenever possible and whenever the situation allowed and fire not too close to the highway," said Mike Conway, regional superintendent of the North Slave region at the Department of Transportation.
"Over the next 24 hours we will not be able to escort anybody through. A fire is breaching the highway and the winds are from the northwest which is problematic for where it is right now. It is not possible to escort through at this time."
Dennis Marchiori, director of public safety, said Wednesday that the city is not currently concerned about forest fires threatening the community, largely because the GNWT has not stated there is need of an immediate response.
"We haven't gotten any serious update from the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) or the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) that states residents are at risk," said Marchiori.
"ENR will notify us through MACA if residents are at serious risk due to forest fires."
If that were to happen, Marchori said the city would declare an emergency, after decided by council and the mayor. A decision-making emergency organization committee, made up of representatives from the city Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and other pertinent figures would be formed.
A site command body with officials from the fire division, the RCMP, municipal enforcement division and Environment and Natural Resources would then take orders from the committee to respond to a major area of concern. In the case of a fire, site command personnel would go to the area at the edge of town and create a burnout.
Residents would not be asked to come to a central location, said Marchiori.
"We wouldn't gather people at a reception centre," he said.
"We would want them to stay at home and do their regular activities while we try to deal with whatever the threat is. It would be exactly the same as how the City of Calgary dealt with their floods. "
The city is more concerned about the air quality, as announced by Environment Canada earlier this week. According to the government department's Air Quality Health Index, Yellowknife's air quality shot up from a low risk of two to a high risk of nine on Tuesday. This was largely due a shift in wind patterns where a great deal of smoke was blown into the community and Marchiori said the city is asking people with heart or lung conditions, particularly elders, to avoid strenuous activities.
The city is also reminding citizens that with extreme fire risks in the area, even throwing lit cigarette butts from car windows can cause a forest fire.
"We just need to be a little more careful before we get a good amount of rain," he said.
Bush fires by squatters in the immediate area have been less frequent, he added, noting that the fire division has been diligent in responding whenever smoke has appeared.
Most communities in the NWT do have emergency plans as required by the Civil Emergency Measures Act. The document provides a number of guidelines to city staff which include not only how to respond to natural or man-made disasters, but also how to set up reception centres for other communities needing to evacuate. Often these documents are not publicly accessible because there is confidential information about key contacts in those documents.
"The main emergency plan for the City of Yellowknife has a lot of confidential information like home addresses, home telephone numbers and that is usually never put out in the public," said Marchiori.
"So we have looked at doing a scrubbed down version and list some of the duties that are within the plan and put more information on our website."
It isn't rare for communities in the NWT to declare emergencies and utilize such plans. However, the last time Yellowknife has had to do so was when the city took evacuees from Deline due to a massive forest fire in July 2011.
"Right now we haven't heard from grocery stores that they have serious problems with their stocks," said Marchiori.
"I think DOT is doing the best job that they can with the resources that they have and that is excellent as long as they keep communicating."
Mayor Mark Heyck was unavailable to comment as he is currently attending a Federation of Canadian Municipalities Conference.
States of Emergency established due to fire
2011 - Deline due to forest fire. The fire burned 12 km north of Deline. More than 100 children and elders evacuated to Yellowknife.
2003 - Norman Wells fire. One hundred residents evacuated to Inuvik.
1998 - Tibbett Lake City's emergency operations team was activated. Five people evacuated.
1995 - Sahtu region, 950 evacuated, 650 people were moved to Yellowknife.
- Source: Northern News Services archives, NWT Hazard Narratives 2014
