Rayne Wetrade watches smoke billowing from a forest fire near Gameti on July 7. - photo courtesy of Jenn Wetrade |
In the line of fire
Forest infernos dominate the headlines in 2014
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, January 5, 2015
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Looking back on 2014, News/North had no difficulty selecting the top news story that impacted people in the NWT last year.
Without doubt, it was the drought-fuelled extreme forest fire season – millions of hectares of scorched earth, a summer of constant smoke, interrupted highway travel and a fear that more and worse blazes might become the new normal.
"I would say they were intense beyond anybody's best guess," Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) Minister Michael Miltenberger said of the fires.
By the time the wildfire season ended in the fall, 3.4 million hectares had burned, compared to the previous record of three million hectares in the mid-1990s.
The area burned is "something akin to the size of New Brunswick," said Miltenberger, whose department was responsible for fighting the fires at a final cost of $59 million.
Miltenberger praised the efforts of firefighters.
"When you look at the work that these folks did, the men and women on the ground and in the air, putting themselves literally in the line of fire day after day in an unprecedented, intense fire season, they did an amazing, admirable job," he said.
Additional resources, including an extra 600 firefighters and more aircraft, came from across Canada and even Alaska. When that proved not to be enough, ENR hired over 400 extra personnel in the NWT.
Property damaged, but all communities survive
While the fires claimed private buildings – including a lodge at Moraine Point and a homestead at Hoarfrost River – they were stopped from entering communities.
"Overall, it could have been a lot, lot worse," said Miltenberger, pointing to, for example, the efforts of firefighters to save Kakisa from an "unmitigated disaster" when a fire burned around the community.
Frank Lepine, associate director of ENR's forest management division, said there was not really advance warning of the "unprecedented" fire season, although he noted there was previous drought in some areas.
"But the indicator that kind of caught our attention was the first fire which was by Tathlina Lake, and that ended up as the Kakisa fire," he said. "Our crews went out there and tried to put it out, and they just couldn't contain it."
Normally, fires in that swampy area south of Kakisa Lake go out on their own.
"For us, it's probably the worst fire season we've ever had to deal with as an agency," said Lepine, noting ENR records go back to the 1950s.
Forest firefighters had to deal with numerous fires that affected or threatened communities – Fort Smith, Hay River, Kakisa, Sandy Lake, Jean Marie River, Fort Liard, Whati, Gameti and Yellowknife.
"They all had fires that could have come right into the communities," Lepine said, noting the closest was at Kakisa.
Louie Beaulieu, a fire technician in Fort Smith, helped fight up to 15 fires this past summer, and said the wildfires were bigger than average.
"They got massive right away," Beaulieu said, adding that, at the hottest times of the day, the fires would grow quickly.
"That was one of the reasons why they had a hard time controlling fires because you couldn't put people in there at certain times of the day because it got so hot," he said.
Dr. Andre Corriveau, the NWT's chief medical health officer, heard anecdotal evidence of short-term health effects from the smoke – more people visiting emergency or clinics with respiratory problems like worsening asthma and pharmacies selling more inhalers.
"But from a population basis, we don't expect to see any sort of lingering effects from that season," he said. "Most people would recover quickly once the air quality is back to normal."
Corriveau said he has seen similar smoke conditions before in the NWT, but not for such a protracted length of time.
"It went really from the end of June all the way into mid-September," he said. "So that was the part that got to everybody. It was just that it was day after day."
Travel on a number of highways was affected by the fires. The most affected was Highway 3 between Fort Providence and Behchoko, where a massive 750,000-hectare trio of fires called the Birch Lake Complex interrupted traffic off and on throughout the summer.
"It was probably the most challenging summer the Department of Transportation has ever experienced," said Michael Conway, regional superintendent for the North Slave with the department.
There were about 25 separate closures of Highway 3 between early July and late August, he said.
"There were a lot of situations where the fire was alongside the highway," said Conway. "We had a number of situations where the fires crossed the highway, of course which was something we didn't want to see any of the public near. The other big challenge for us was the smoke and visibility."
The effects of a changing climate
A disconcerting thing about the past fire season is it may be a sign of things to come.
"As you look at climate change and global warming, you wonder and you hope that this is not the new normal," said Miltenberger.
The minister noted that around Hay River, Fort Smith and Yellowknife, there was almost no rain in the fall and snow levels remain minimal.
The lack of precipitation is also causing problems with the Snare Hydro System that supplies Yellowknife, Behchoko and Dettah with electricity. Low water levels in the tributaries that feed the dam means roughly $20 million worth of diesel will be burned at the Jackfish Lake power plant to keep power flowing through the winter.
"We haven't had any indication from Mother Nature that there's going to be a lot of moisture, yet," Miltenberger said.
"We're going to be watching very, very carefully between now and spring, and hope that we get some substantial snowfall."
He added that ENR is currently assessing the firefighting efforts this past summer to possibly see areas for improvement in the upcoming fire season.
