Raging wildfires trigger mass evacuation in Canada’s Northwest Territories

Wildfires have forced an evacuation of Yellowknife, the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories.

Officials with the territorial government told residents in the highest-risk areas to evacuate immediately.

Yellowknife evacuation orders

Other residents have until 12 p.m. local time on Friday to leave the city of about 20,000.

Today, Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau convened a meeting of the Incident Response Group to discuss the wildfires in the Northwest Territories. @CanadianForces personnel and aircraft are deployed to support emergency response efforts – and we’ll continue to be there to help. pic.twitter.com/zu0T82WRbf

— Bill Blair (@BillBlair) August 17, 2023

Depending on smoke conditions, those leaving by car will be escorted through the active fire zone, officials said. Residents who can’t leave by road are being asked to register for evacuation flights.

The City just issued an Evacuation Alert for some areas of the City; what does that mean? Please read these documents for more information. pic.twitter.com/3IxNB3DPR6

— City of Yellowknife (@OurYellowknife) August 16, 2023

Wildfires ravage Canada

For some, it will be the second exodus in recent days. Evacuees from the remote communities of Hay River and Fort Smith were already being housed in Yellowknife, according to an update Tuesday.

Canada is experiencing the worst wildfire season on record. More than 1,000 active fires are burning across the country of which more than 670 are out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

So far, 13.7 million hectares have burned, far exceeding the 1995 record of 7.1 million hectares.

Read: Hawaii wildfire death toll rises to 93 as experts look into cause of ignition