Department of Transportation vehicle parked at eerie looking Highway 3 between Behchoko and Fort Providence over night Thursday. Smoke from the Chan Lake fire closed the highway early Friday morning and re-opened early Saturday. After being closed again Sunday morning, it was re-opened as of 11 a.m. - photo courtesy of Department of Transportation |
No quick end in sight to forest fires
Officials say prolonged, steady rainfall needed to combat nearly 200 fires
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Published Monday, July 21, 2014
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Nearly 200 forest fires continued to burn across the NWT last week, taxing the territory's fire resources and its budget.
Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) Minister Michael Miltenberger, who is also the finance minister, said this week the territory is still spending about a million dollars a day to fight the fires.
"The money has to be borrowed, it has to be provided," said Miltenberger. "We don't worry about the cost right now. We fight the fires, protect people and property and pay our bills. The money spent will be assessed by MLAs in the fall."
The territorial government has made an appeal to all GNWT employees regardless of their department to help fight the fires.
"We've asked our employees to help. If they have experience fighting fires, that's great.
"If they're in another department and they have a piece of heavy equipment we can borrow, that's also good," said Miltenberger. "Any help we can get."
He said it's the first time in his 19 years as an MLA that such a request has gone out. What's not new to Miltenberger is an incredibly bad fire season. He said he remembers a summer that was just as bad about 30 years ago.
"I was in Fort Smith at the time and there were fires all around us," said Miltenberger.
Between Friday, July 17 and July 19, the number of active fires in the North Slave region jumped from 76 to 85.
"It shot up because we got dry lightning through the area on Friday," said Judy McLinton, ENR spokesperson on Sunday.
On Saturday, a new fire sprang up on an island near Ptarmigan Point, about 10 km from Yellowknife. There was also a fire that began north of Vee Lake on Saturday, according to McLinton.
The active fires are either under control or being monitored, she said.
A fire about 60
kilometres northwest of Yellowknife, just west
of the Contwoyto to Tibbitt Lake Winter Road, began by lightning Friday night.
According to ENR that fire is being assessed and sprinklers are being set up around the Dome Lake Camp, which is used to service trucks when the winter road is open.
The fire is an estimated 1,000 square hectares. ENR is now giving daily forest fire updates on its website.
The first bit of good news on that website last week was that Highway 3 had reopened between Behchoko and Fort Providence on July 17. The highway was cloed all day and into the evening July 18, and re-opened Saturday morning, July 19. By press time Sunday, the highway oas open.
It's been closed off and on for most of July.
"We've been escorting convoys of vehicles through when the smoke allows," said Michael Conway, a spokesperson with the Department of Transportation (DOT).
"That means there wasn't too long a lineup of traffic when we reopened the highway."
One person who did get caught in the line of traffic was Yellowknifer columnist Candace McQuatt.
She and her two dogs had to sleep in her pickup truck on July 15 Behchoko.
She was on her way to a family reunion in Kelowna, B.C., but had to wait until Wednesday morning when a DOT pilot vehicle escorted her and a long line of vehicles through the smoke zone.
McQuatt went through an area where fire has burned both sides of the highway.
"It was unbelievable.
There was no green for kilometres, just charred, black landscape, still smoldering," she said.
Included in the North Slave Region is what's being called the Birch Creek complex of fires.
It was one of those fires that crossed Highway 3 earlier this month past week between Behchoko and Fort Providence. It scorched a 10-kilometre stretch of the highway, melting chipseal and destroying several road signs.
McLinton said the fire is exhibiting "extreme fire events."
She said it's not burning at ground level.
"It's burning at the tops of the trees and spreading very rapidly." she said.
Another fire keeping crews busy is the Reid Lake fire, about 120 kilometres east of Yellowknife, on the Ingraham Trail. Reid Lake Territorial Park has now been closed to campers. It's being used as a base camp by crews fighting the fire about 20 kilometres from the campground.
Firefighters created a containment line and tried to turn the fire back on itself with what's known as a back burn. McLinton said the crews were able to steer the fire away from the Ingraham Trail.
She said however that the fire jumped the containment line and is now headed south towards Hearne Lake and Campbell Lake.
"Crews are currently assessing and protecting values at risk in that fire.
There is the Hearne Lake Lodge and several cabins that could be at risk," McLinton said.
Fires burning near Gameti and Wekweeti are not currently threatening either community. In the South Slave Region, ENR said on July 18 that there are now 60 active fires. The one that forced the evacuation on Kakisa earlier this month continues to burn but officials said that is no longer threatening the community. The cleanup in Kakisa is ongoing.
ENR reported on July 18 that there are 14 active fires in the Deh Cho region. None are threatening any communities.
There are 26 active fires in the Sahtu. ENR said the region received rain for the past few days and fire behaviour has been decreased, A fire on the Tulita winter road is now under control. In the Inuvik area there are six active fires, none of which are threatening communities or property.
Wes Steed, fire prevention co-ordinator with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources said hot, dry, windy conditions have meant that fires are acting differently than in other years.
"We've seen more crowning fires. That's where the fire is burning at the tops of trees and jumping quicker from tree to tree."
Steed said they won't put firefighters in the path of a continuously crowning fire.
He said what the territory needs is prolonged, steady rain.
"We need about two good inches of rain.
That won't put the fires out but would make the fight a little more what fire crews are used to seeing."
Steed said ENR is pleading with folks to be very careful with their outdoor fires.
He estimates about five per cent of the fires in the NWT this summer were caused by humans.
"That includes everything from ATVs igniting grass on the trails to a bulldozer creating a spark when the blade hits a rock.
"The personnel needed to fight the fires and co-ordinate the effort is staggering," Steed said
He said dozens of firefighters and incident management team members have come to Reid Lake and elsewhere in the NWT from across the country to help fight fires.
-with files from Simon Whitehouse
