Nahanni Butte residents told to stay out of community, as officials monitor nearby wildfire

Residents of Nahanni Butte, N.W.T., are being asked to delay returning home, after they were driven out of their community Thursday night by a wildfire 6 km away.

This morning, officials with the department of Municipal and Community Affairs said the 80 residents who left were clear to go home, but now say they should stay away an extra day, as a precaution.

• Forest fire near Nahanni Butte not spreading toward the community, says ENR

"There isn't a threat to the community at this time," said Mike Drake Friday afternoon, superintendent for the Deh Cho region for Municipal and Community Affairs. "There isn't a wall of fire outside the community."

Drake said wildfire officials will re-evaluate the fire Saturday, and decide whether it's safe to return. 

Drake said the decision to keep people out of Nahanni Butte until at least Saturday came from new information from fire crews who flew over the fire on Friday. 

Earl Hope lives in Nahanni Butte, and joined officials in the helicopter to survey the fire, which he says is now burning away from the community.

"The wind has died down, and the smoke is not too bad," he said Friday afternoon. "There are still embers coming out, but it's not as bad as yesterday."

Hope said the fire has grown to 7,000 hectares, from 2,500 hectares last week.

He supports the decision to keep people out of the community.

"We have 10 km of an access road to get to our boats," said Hope. "If the fire gets to the access road then we're going to be stuck in this community."

Late night evacuation

Community members made the decision to evacuate Thursday night after the fire, which has been smouldering in the mountains west of Nahanni Butte for weeks, suddenly took off in strong winds.

Many from the community of about 100 headed to Fort Liard, 90 kilometres south of Nahanni Butte, where they have family members.

Hope said Friday the wind has since died down, clearing some of the smoke.

"We can see blue skies. It's a lot better than yesterday."

'Probably the worst of it is over': ENR

The territory's Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) said Friday morning the fire was burning about six kilometres from Nahanni Butte, partially blocked from the community by the South Nahanni River.

Richard Olsen, manager of fire operations for the territory, said hot, dry, windy conditions on Thursday pushed a lot of smoke into the community. But he said the fire is not an immediate or potential threat.

"Probably the worst of it is over," said Olsen.

• Hazy, smokey skies continue to blanket parts of the N.W.T. prompting health advisories

• Rains slow forest fire season in N.W.T., but more than 1 million hectares burned in 2017

Olsen says the warmer-than-usual temperatures this fall are about to end.

"We are projecting that over the short term there will be a little more growth in the next 24 hours but it looks like we'll get off of the hot, dry weather back to seasonal, cool temperatures, and less opportunities for the fire itself to have any significant movement," Olsen said.

Fire crews will be setting up sprinklers in the community, and water bombers are in the area keeping the fire under control.

Burning for weeks

As they head back, some residents of Nahanni Butte are asking why the department didn't do more sooner to stop a fire that's been burning for weeks.

"They should've shut this fire off when it first started. It was just a small one and now it's out of control," said Earl Hope.

"More could've been done."

Olsen says fires burn according to fuel — trees, that is — as well as weather and topography.

"When it first started," Olsen says, "it was up on a really high, sloped area towards the foothills where the mountains are, in an area where we would not normally fight fires. It's pretty unsafe for fire crews to operate in."

Olsen says his team will continue to monitor the fire, and make sure the community is kept informed.