Sambaa K'e, N.W.T., residents itching to go home as evacuation nears 1-month mark

Residents from Sambaa K'e just want to go home.

The community of about 100 has been under an evacuation order for nearly a month. Many residents have been staying in Fort Simpson, N.W.T., including Brenda Jumbo.

"Overall, we're doing pretty good, but just not very much to do throughout the day," she said.

Jumbo and much of her family have been staying at the Aurora College student residence. She says they spend their days gathering with other residents in the building and chatting, waiting for any word of return.

The lengthy evacuation has been a financial burden, too.

"We've posted on Facebook, if there's anyone in town that needed anything done in their yard or mowing their lawns, whatnot, we're available to do that," she said.

The village provides regular meals; Fort Simpson community members have also donated traditional food.

Jumbo says they've called the dealership to defer truck payments.

"They were really helpful too," she said.

Fire 'extremely large' but holding away from community

Jessica Davey-Quantick is a fire information officer with the territorial government. She said the fire has burned about 450,800 hectares.

"That is extremely large," she said. "It crosses the border into B.C. and it has quite a large footprint, so this is a fire that's going to be burning for a while."

Despite its size, the fire has stayed about eight kilometres away from Sambaa K'e.

She said crews have been checking sprinkler systems near buildings, continued to dig out control lines, and are preparing for more controlled burning to get rid of any possible fuel that would bring the fire close to the community.

"We're really appreciative of all the fire workers and those that stayed behind to watch over the community," said Jumbo.

"They are true heroes in keeping our community safe some of them haven't left yet so they're probably really tired and stressed out too."

'Like blowing on a campfire'

Jumbo hopesthey can return soon.

"We've been away from home for too long, missing home We want to go home to our safe haven," said Jumbo.

But that will almost certainly depend on the weather in the coming days.

Davey-Quantick said the forecast is for more hot, dry winds in the area in the coming days.

"It's basically like blowing on a campfire," she said. "If you have hot, dry wind, it's going to help make things puff up and flare up a little bit more."

The wind direction is also expected to push smoke into the community in the coming days.

It's ultimately up to communities to lift evacuation orders, but Davey-Quantick says they're acting with an "abundance of caution" considering Sambaa K'e is only accessible by air in the summer.

"The fear there is that if the smoke shifts, you can't land a plane. So we don't want people going in and getting stuck there."