LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Fort Simpson will not be updating its emergency response plan to include a detailed fire evacuation plan, despite a 100-square-kilometre wildfire now within 30 km of the village.

Fire crews have been battling fires 35 km south of Fort Simpson near Antoine Lake for weeks. The complex included eight fires, although most have been extinguished. One major fire is still burning and has grown to 100 square kilometres in size. - photo courtesy of Department of Environment and Natural Resources

During a village council meeting on July 6, councillors discussed nailing down a plan in the eventuality a fire forced the evacuation of Fort Simpson. However, at a committee meeting on July 8 with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR), councillors decided any emergency would be best handled by practices already in place.

Currently, ENR would let MACA know if a situation requires evacuation. MACA would then refer the matter to the Territorial Emergency Response Committee (TERC) in Yellowknife, who would decide whether an evacuation is necessary. From there, MACA would inform the village, which would be responsible for informing residents.

As for an actual fire evacuation plan, MACA's Deh Cho regional superintendant Mike Drake said there are too many scenarios for a structured plan to be in place.

"It's very difficult to nail down exactly how we are going to evacuate a community — any community in the North," he said. "There's more than one way out of here, and every one of those is dependent on the scenario ... We can't say we're going to fly everyone out of here when that scenario may dictate that the airport is under smoke."

Despite those variables, however, Drake said the government has a "mechanism" in place to look at the different scenarios and come up with a plan.

"All of those scenarios have been thought through and all those different escape routes have been thought through — no question. But which one do you use at the time? That's a different story," he said.

Fort Simpson Mayor Sean Whelly said on July 6 that although Fort Simpson has a detailed flood plan and an emergency plan with a section on forest fires, there are no specific guidelines around forest fire preparedness.

With a lack of engagement between the municipal and territorial governments, Whelly said Fort Simpson was "not that aware" of what would happen during an evacuation.

However, after the committee meeting on July 8, Whelly said the village likely would not update its fire plan beyond updating a list of resources because MACA and ENR would take it upon themselves to notify the community if an evacuation was imminent.

Currently, the fire south of Fort Simpson is being attacked by crews. However, ENR's director of forest management, Frank Lepine, said it could take up to a month to get that fire out. In the past two weeks, the fire has doubled in size.

"It was coming toward Fort Simpson. It's still (29 km) away, still south of Antoine Lake," said Kelly Pennycook during the village committee meeting. Pennycook is a renewable resource officer with ENR and stood in for Loyal Letcher, who is the manager of forests for ENR in the Deh Cho.

Pennycook said no difficulties are expected with the fire in the next week and fire crews have made good progress on it.

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