N.W.T. officials urge residents to register for wildfire evacuation flights out of Yellowknife

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The N.W.T. government is urging people to registerfor one of 22 flights out of the capital on Friday as the noon deadline for evacuation approaches.

A government spokesperson said not enough people had yet presented themselves at Sir John Franklin High School to fill the flights.

That's despite many people spending the night waiting in line for flights.

Shane Thompson, N.W.T.'s minister of municipal and community affairs, said 1,537 Yellowknifers were evacuated by air Thursday with the last flight leaving at 11 p.m.

The close to two dozen flights planned for today have room for a further 1,800 people with extra crew stationed. More flights have been added going into Saturday.

"With the military aircrafts, we will have everyone registered to go," Thompsonsaid. "We will continue to operate until we get everybody out who wants to fly out."

Yellowknife Mayor Rebecca Alty said the check-in started at 6 a.m. MT Friday and is moving better than Thursday.

Alty encouragedpeople with access to a vehicle to hit the highway.

She said people should not use boats to go to nearbyislands in Great Slave Lake. With 63 per cent of the nine communities to be evacuated, Alty said a lot of work is underway and resources are limited for search and rescue missions.

"Please do not do that. Come for a flight today. Yesterday was frustrating, but please come," she said.

"I know it's difficult to leave our homes, your valuables, your memories, but you are the most important."

WATCH |Mike Westwick says crews are doing everything possible to slow flames:

Fire could reach outskirts of Yellowknife by the weekend

10 months ago

Duration 5:34

Mike Westwick, a fire information officer in the Northwest Territories, said crews are doing everything possible to slow fires outside the city but he noted 'there is a possibility this fire reaches the outskirts of Yellowknife by the weekend.'

Mike Westwick, a territorialfire information officer, told CBC News Friday morning that the fire is now 15 kilometres northwest of the city and two days of northwest to west-northwest winds on Friday and Saturday would push the fire closer. A fire is also encroaching on IngrahamTrail.

"Thefire could reachthe outskirts of Yellowknife by thisweekend We were able to hold the Ingraham fire a little bit more, that's good news. It only progressed in a minor way but there's no way of getting around it," Westwick said.

"These next two days are going to be critical in our fire response and some of the most challenging this season."

Light rain Thursdaydid little to help control the advancing fire, Westwick said. Though a cooler day of 16 C is expected Friday, Yellowknife can expect strong winds from the northwest with gusts up to 40 kilometres per hour.

"Priority one is to slow the fire encroaching to Yellowknife."

Over the past two days, seven water tankers have been working on the fire.

Westwick said 20 kilometres of water sprinklers and heavy water systems have been installed around Yellowknife and a control line is being cut west of the city.

Crews from theCanadian Armed Forces and firefighters from South Africa and Saskatchewan are assisting.More than 200 fires are currently burning across the territory. Shops across Yellowknife are closed and the streets have grown quiet.

Echoing Westwick's concern, Alty said the winds are "not being co-operative" and urgedpeople to immediately approach the evacuation centres.

Alty said about 160 hectares of trees have been removed from the city's outskirts.

In a separate update, 3,699 vehicles were tracked going over the Deh Cho Bridge Thursday, which crosses the Mackenzie River near Fort Providence. In the past two days, 5,118 vehicles have crossed that bridge, spokesperson Nicole Bonnellsaid. That figure does not include people who have fled to communities in the Tch region north of Yellowknife.

In the South Slave region,Westwicksaid the fire threatening Hay River remains stalled 10 kilometres from the community.

Another evacuation order was issued on Thursday morning for the town of Kakisa, N.W.T.It follows an evacuation alert issued for the community nine days ago. An evacuation centre has been set up in Fort Simpson, N.W.T.

Westwick said water sprinklers have been installed in every home in Kakisa.

In its late Thursday update, N.W.T Fire said Behchok, which lies northwest of Yellowknife on the highway route south, is not at risk.

The RCMP said Yellowknife Fire responded early Friday morning to a fire on Deh Cho Boulevard in the city's west. Officialsbelievethe fire to be arson. No arrests have been made.

"The area this fire occurred is somewhat remote and that means that the person responsible had to specifically travel to the location to deliberately set this fire," said RCMP Cpl. Matt Halstead in a Friday news release.

RCMP also responded to three complaints of break and enters in the early morning hours of Friday. Two of those were false alarms, RCMP said.

The third incident was reported at 7:31 a.m. Friday morning at a residence on School Draw Avenue where someone had forced entry in the entryway of a residence. Damage was done to a number of windows.

The territorial government has provided the following information for residents:

• N.W.T. residents whoneed to evacuate can register here.
• Territorial wildfire updatescan be found here. Report smoke or fire by calling 1-877-698-3473.
• Emergency response resourcescan be found here.
• The latest community statuses, including notices, alerts and orders,can be found here.
• Additional information for evacueescan be found here.

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