Deh Cho under fire ban
17 fires already reported in the region as drought conditions persist
April Hudson
Northern News Services
Thursday, May 28, 2015
DEH CHO
Extreme fire conditions have led the GNWT to issue a region-wide fire ban for the Deh Cho.
As of press time there were 43 forest fires burning in the NWT, 20 of which were located in the Deh Cho region. - map courtesy of the Department Environment and Natural Resources
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As of press time the Department of Environment and Natural Resources said there were 43 fires are burning in the NWT, up from 34 on Monday. Of those 20 are located in the Deh Cho region. So far, 8.994 hectares of forest have burned - an exponentially increase from the 1,063 hectares that had burned as of Monday.
During his first weekly report of the year on May 25, NWT Fire Operations manager Richard Olsen said 23 of the territory's 28 fire crews are working right now, as well as all five of the territory's aircraft. The department is also employing helicopters to help with fire response.
"At this point in time, we've pretty much manned up all our aircraft and human resources about two weeks in advance of what we usually do," Olsen said.
Two of the Deh Cho fires are burning near Fort Providence, one of which was human-caused, Olsen said.
"We are in relatively extreme burning conditions for the majority of the NWT. People should be very, very careful in deciding the need for any fire they may think they need for cooking or keeping warm," he added.
In total, the Fort Simpson area had seen just three millimetres of precipitation between May 1 and May 25.
That's eight times less than the average precipitation for the month, which about 24 millimetres, according to David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada.
On May 26, Fort Simpson did get a brief spell of rain. The precipitation from that rainfall is not reflected in the above number.
Phillips said last week that the month of May is shaping up to be the hottest May in more than a century.
"What happened in May is, not only did you turn up the furnaces but you turned off the faucet ... The ground is drying out, water levels are falling and the forest litter is also drying," he said.
"The potential for forest fires this season is even more than last year, because we're looking at even drier conditions."
At this point, even a storm could be bad news - especially if it brings lightning with it.
"If there's a dry lightning storm, it could set off any number of fires," Phillips said.
According to ENR, there are four fires burning near Trout Lake with one of those just 30 kilometres away - although Olsen said there is no danger to the community at this point.
In fact, at the time he gave his report, Olsen said there were no communities being threatened by wildfires.
On the GNWT's website, ENR states that in the Deh Cho region, 15 new fires began since the weekend
At press time, the fire danger forecast for Fort Simpson, Fort Liard and Wrigley was listed as extreme.
For fire updates of to report a blaze visit ENR's NWT fire website.
