N.W.T. fire crews plan burnout to protect airstrip at Snare hydro system

A wildfire 10 kilometres south of the Snare hydro system is now approaching the airstrip servicing the facility.

The fire, which initially covered 10 hectares, is now covering 1900 hectares of forest about 65 kilometres north of Behchoko and has been classified "out of control."

"The fire is approximately one kilometre from the airstrip," said Amber Simpson, a wildfire information officer with the N.W.T.'s Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Simpson said fire crews are doing what they can to protect it.

"There are fire crews prepping to do a burnout. We're just waiting for the right conditions to do that operation.

"They did have some rain go through there, and that kind of dampened things, and that's making burnout a bit difficult."

According to Simpson, fire crews are hoping to finish the burnout by the end of the week, but she stressed that crews are not there to fight the fire.

"They're trying to protect [values at risk]. There are power poles out there that are wooden poles, so they're putting sprinkler kits on there and they hope to burnout from that area to protect those poles.

"We don't expect the fire to move towards the dam, but once it starts to dry up a bit, and we will be getting winds later in the week, that could possibly push it more towards the dam."

Simpson says the fire is expected to grow over the coming days, and burn throughout the summer.

"Once we have the values protected, we'll just let the fire continue."

According to Simpson, no transmission lines or poles have been damaged.

NTPC workers still on site

The Snare hydro system provides power to Yellowknife, Behchoko and Dettah. It includes four separate hydro plants as well as 150 kilometres of transmission lines.

"If there is a threat to our staff, obviously we would remove them," said Pam Coulter with the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.

Coulter said workers are flown in and out of the facilities, but if anything happened to the airstrip itself, "helicopters can come in and out without an airstrip, so there's always that option."

Whether or not the flow of power from the Snare system will be disrupted is uncertain.

"At this point we're not expecting a disruption, however if [the territorial government] asks us to shut down lines in order to do water drops or burns, we will do that, but it should not result in any outages," said Coulter.  

Fires in Sahtu, Mackenzie Delta

There is a 100-hectare fire located about 20 kilometres southeast of Norman Wells that is currently being fought.

"It's not really growing towards Norman Wells, and the crews are working on ...  that fire to make sure that it doesn't grow more towards Norman Wells," said Simpson.

She also said there is "some fire history between that fire and Norman Wells," which could help protect the community.

Yesterday, two small fires started 9 kilometres and 36 kilometres from Inuvik. Both of those fires are now under control.

According to Simpson, no communities or infrastructure in the N.W.T. are at risk at this time.