95% of Yellowknife has now been evacuated due to N.W.T. wildfires

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Northwest Territories officials said on Friday evening that more than 19,000 people have fled from Yellowknife due to wildfires and urged those who remain to also leave as soon as possible.

The N.W.T. government on Wednesday ordered Yellowknife's 20,000 or so residents to leave the capital city and urged people who couldn't leave by road to register for flights out of Yellowknife as a nearby wildfire threatened to reach the city within days.

Yellowknife MayorRebecca Alty on Friday evening again urged the roughly five per cent of residents who haven't left yet to urgently do so.

"Everyone should leave tonight," Alty said innews conference.

Shane Thompson, N.W.T.'s minister of municipal and community affairs, echoed Alty's sentiment.

"You endanger yourself and others by staying,"Thompson said.

Weather helps slow spread

On the firefighting front, Mike Westwick, a territorialfire information officer, said the blazes have not grown much in the last couple of days due to good weather conditions and suppression efforts.

"It was a little cooler today than forecasted and with some cloud cover, along with high level of moisture in the air, [the weather] did put a bit of a damper on fire activity for much of the day,"Westwicksaid Friday evening.

He said the fire near Yellowknife was still 15 kilometres northwest of the city, having not moved much closer through Friday.

However, he was cautious to note that the threat has not yet passed and the next few days are expected to be dry.

Crews from theCanadian Armed Forces and firefighters from South Africa and Saskatchewan are assisting efforts to battle the more than 200 wildfires across N.W.T.

Westwicksaid Friday evening that wildfiresare 10 kilometres south of Hay River, nine kilometres south of Jean-Marie River and14 kilometres east ofKakisa.

More regions regain telecommunications

Additionally on Friday, NorthwesTelsaidinternet, phone and cell servicehas been restored to the following communities:

• Enterprise.
• Fort Resolution.
• Fort Smith.
• Hay River.
• High Level, Alta.

Outages remain inJean-Marie River andKakisa, N.W.T.