After stressful evacuation, some Sambaa K'e residents happy to be in Fort Simpson

Despite being displaced by a wildfire, some Sambaa K'e, N.W.T., evacuees in Fort Simpson are staying positive, and enjoying a chance to reconnect with friends and family. 

Nine-year-old Etoah Lamalice says although the morning was stressful, she is happy now that she got to visit her cousin. 

"I was kind of excited to come here," she said. 

On Wednesday, an evacuation order was issued for Sambaa K'e, a community of fewer than 100, as a nearby wildfire was about 30 kilometres away from the community.

Brian Kotchea flew out of Sambaa K'e with his three daughters, all of whom were excited to go to Fort Simpson, a regional hub of about 1,200.

He said his youngest daughter, who is five, was especially looking forward to going to the Fort Simpson pool.  

Setiah Lamalice, 16, said she has been enjoying the chance to hang out with friends, although they spent the first night trying to distract themselves from the fire. 

She said she was in shock from the evacuation, especially seeing everyone at the airport. 

"Everyone kind of looked scared," she said.

"Because at the airport when you like, looked straight, you could see a bunch of smoke. There's like a hill, probably like 10 kilometres away and it looked like the fires behind that, there was a lot of smoke. Scary."

For Kotchea, who worked in fire suppression, seeing the proximity of the fire while leaving was concerning. 

"You could see smoke coming from the ridges," he said. "Like holy, never seen that before."

Norma Jumbo works at the the community store in Sambaa K'e and was the store when she heard of the evacuation. She finished up her shift before packing her things and heading to the airport, where she saw the biggest plane she'd ever flown on. 

"It's massive," she said with a laugh. "It's huge for all of us."

Jumbo said flying out of the community was emotional as it was hard to see all the smoke. 

"My dad said the community was in flames in 1942, between 1942 and on it was like burned to nothing and I don't want to see that," she said.  

She said she is worried about her home and her boat, but she's staying busy by socializing with her fellow community members.

Jumbo said she was born in Fort Simpson and she's staying with family for the time being. 

As with any evacuation, residents of Sambaa K'e had to pick and choose what they brought with them. For Etoah, she made she made sure to bring her dolls and blankets. 

Kotchea said he made sure to grab all his important pictures, so did Setiah, especially ones with her grandparents.  

Kotchea, Setiah and Etoah are among the 80 or so people who left Sambaa K'e on Wednesday for Fort Simpson.

Fort Simpson set up an evacuation centre full of cots at the recreation centre. However, almost all evacuees have found other places to stay, with family or in some hotels. 

Many plan to return to the evacuation centre for meals, which will be provided three times a day.

There are also tables set up in case anyone wants to play cards and a projector screen where people can watch TV.

Mike Westwick, a fire information officer with N.W.T. Fire, said Thursday morning that the fire was under 30 km from Sambaa K'e. 

N.W.T. Fire said sprinklers have been set up to protect infrastructure in the community and firefighters were working to establish a firebreak and to protect homes.