Extreme conditions force crews to pull back from fighting wildfire near Kakisa, N.W.T.
CBC
Strong winds caused a wildfire to rush 18 kilometres toward Kakisa, N.W.T., on Tuesday.
Late that evening, the community issued an evacuation alert to residents.
"This fire did overwhelm our firefighting response," said Mike Westwick, wildfire information officer with the territorial government.
"Crews were forced to pull back from the fire for safety reasons.… When a fire is burning that hot, the first job at the end of the day is to get folks home safe."
Westwick said tankers continued to attack the fire into the night on Tuesday and stopped the fire's growth toward Highway 1.
The fire has grown to about 5,100 hectares in size and is burning about 16 kilometres southeast of Kakisa and 12 kilometres from the highway.
Westwick said crews would be reassessing Wednesday how best to mitigate the risk of the fire.
"Something else to note is that the fire has burned into previously burned areas from 2014, which is highly unusual," he said. "Really just a sign of the extreme conditions that we're seeing and the drought being faced in that area which is causing fire to burn hotter, burn deeper and be more difficult to take out."
He also commended Kakisa's leadership.
"Make no mistake, this is a pretty serious situation," he said. "We applaud the community government of Kakisa for taking leadership and getting their folks ready to leave on short notice."