Sambaa K'e burn so big it could fit Yellowknife 24 times, part of 'alarming' wildfire season
CBC
The out-of-control wildfire burning near Sambaa K'e, N.W.T., is immense.
Having grown in explosive and unexpected fashion from 68,000 hectares to 250,000 hectares over a matter of days — the burned area in the N.W.T. covers a swath of land nearly 24 times the size of Yellowknife, and three times the size of Calgary.
It represents 41 per cent of the nearly 600,000 hectares that burned in last year's fire season in the N.W.T.
The Sambaa K'e wildfire forced residents to flee more than a week ago and has indirectly burned down one home. It's one of 21 fires in the territory so far that have contributed to what Mike Westwick, a wildfire information officer for the N.W.T. government, described as an "extraordinary start to the season."
Wildfires will start as early as May, said Westwick, but they often stay smaller because the ground is cold, there's more moisture in the environment, and there aren't long spells of heat.
"That was certainly not the case this year," he said.
May brought record-breaking temperatures to the N.W.T, and Westwick said there's a drought in parts of the territory's Dehcho and South Slave regions — conditions that cause a fire to burn deep and hot, and make it hard to put out.
Jennifer Baltzer, a Canada Research Chair in forests and global change at Wilfrid Laurier University who used to live outside Yellowknife, said it's hard to look at a single fire season and link it to our warming world. But when you step back and look at the broader trends and consider that forest fires are burning across Canada, she said "it just screams climate change."
"If we don't get a handle on fossil fuel emissions and greenhouse gas emissions this will continue to get worse," she said.
The wildfire season in the N.W.T. will carry on for months to come and already, in early June, 400,000 hectares of land have burned. That puts the territory well on its way to hitting the 600,000 hectares of land burned last year.
Westwick said looking at averages can give the territory a better idea of what to expect.
He said so far this year, the amount of land burned is triple the average measured over the last five years, and is also more than two thirds of the way toward hitting the 10-year average.
Baltzer calls that "certainly alarming."
"I think we're seeing this across the country. Most provinces and territories are seeing area burned that is far exceeding what they would experience at this point in the year, in a normal year," she said.