SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Highway officials and motorists in the NWT are keeping their fingers crossed that a controlled backburn near Fort Providence yesterday would successfully divert a forest fire there and allow Yellowknife's only road link to the south to reopen.

The highway has been closed since Sunday evening. As of press time, the backburn had not yet been conducted because of unfavourable winds and reduced visibility from smoke.

This photo, taken Monday on Highway 3 at kilometre 128 between Behchoko and Fort Providence, shows flames and smoke creeping closer to the highway. The fire forced the highway to close Sunday evening and officials say it won't reopen until Wednesday morning at the earliest. - photo courtesy of Department of Transportation

Michael Conway, regional superintendent for the Department of Transportation (DOT), said even without crews conducting the backburn, the highway had to be closed earlier this week because of flames alongside the road and thick smoke reducing visibility to unsafe levels.

"No, we're not even escorting vehicles through the area at this time," said Conway. "It's just too dangerous."

He said the fire has burned across the highway once again. It's not clear how many times fires have jumped the highway this summer.

When fires did that earlier this month, they were so hot parts of the highway melted and several road signs burned.

The fires responsible for the latest highway closure are referred to as the Birch Lake complex.

Judy McLinton, a spokesperson with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR), said the series of fires stretch from about 80 kilometres south of Behchoko to about 50 kilometres north of Fort Providence.

She said the total area burned is about 400 square kilometres.

McLinton said crews are also currently trying to protect properties along the west shore of Great Slave Lake.

Meanwhile, the nearest fire to Yellowknife continues to burn about 30 kilometres outside the city. McLinton said the fire is burning near Highway 3.

She said crews had cut a containment line Monday and as of Tuesday afternoon, it was still holding.

She said the fire is not currently threatening the city or the highway.

"The priority for the crews is to keep the fire from reaching the highway and the city," said McLinton.

She added that she did not think that fire was responsible for all the smoke in the city the past few days, particularly last weekend.

"You can actually track the smoke and it appears all the smoke in Yellowknife lately is from the Birch Lake complex, south of Behchoko," said McLinton.

"The wind on the weekend was from the south and we think it was the smoke from that complex of fires that blew into the city."

She said smoke will likely remain an issue in Yellowknife for at least the next couple of days.

McLinton stated in an earlier e-mail that the fire danger in the North Slave region remains extreme.

She wrote that about 1.1 percent of the NWT's boreal forest has now been lost to forest fires this season. That's about 10,650 square kilometres - almost twice the size of PEI.

Little rain in forecast

With virtually no rain in the forecast and warm temperatures persisting, officials do not see a quick end in sight to the worst fire season in the territory in some 30 years.

There are currently about 400 fire personnel overall working in the NWT. About half of them are from the territory, McLinton stated.

The rest of them right now are from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Ontario.

There have been firefighters from B.C., Alberta, Alaska, Yukon and Nova Scotia in the NWT at different times this summer.

McLinton stated there are currently four main camps set up for firefighters - they're located near Kakisa, Birch Creek, Reid Lake and Whati.

There is a transition camp near Dettah for firefighters moving to and from fires.

She said ENR has two other fire camps of its own set up at Francois Bay on Great Slave Lake and Awry Lake.

McLinton said crews on smaller fires where they were not expected to last more than a week have established their own camps near the fires.

She said firefighters are allowed to work 14 straight days, but must then take two days off.

When asked about the challenges of fighting the fires, including the ones causing the constant closure of Highway 3, McLinton said the fire conditions have been extreme this season and so has the fire behaviour.

"It's the worst drought code in the North and South Slave regions recorded in the past 30 to 40 years.

"The drought code measures the average moisture content of deep, compact organic layers," stated McLinton.

In the southern part of the NWT, there has been no significant rainfall all summer.

"That means the forests are dry from the soil to the top of the trees," she stated.

Fires are burning very hot and in some cases deep into the ground. It can be too dangerous to directly attack and put crews at the front of the fire.

"Indirect attack is often the only safe way to deal with fires in these extreme conditions," stated McLinton, meaning that crews are attempting only to contain the fire rather than extinguish it.

Meanwhile, DOT officials said despite very thick smoke in the Gameti area, the airport remains open.

"We haven't closed the airport," said Conway.

It's up to the airline to decide whether to cancel flights due to smoke.

Pilots generally need to be able to see a minimum of 1.6 kilometres from the air and be able to see the ground from no less than about 150 metres," Conway said.

Yellowknifer Jeffrey Corradetti said he was stranded in Gameti most of last week because he couldn't get a flight out due to the smoke.

He said he was to have flown out last Wednesday, but couldn't actually fly back to Yellowknife until Monday.

He said the delay was frustrating, but so was the lack of information on the status of Air Tindi's daily flight to and from Yellowknife.

Air Tindi did not return a phone call made yesterday morning.

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