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Everyone in the city of Yellowknife was ordered to start evacuating on Wednesday due to nearby wildfires.
Northwest Territories Premier Caroline Cochrane urged residents to leave by noon Friday at a news conference on Wednesday evening.
The N.W.T. government, in an earlier fire update, said the blaze had advanced slightly overnight and was within 16 kilometres of Yellowknife, home to 20,000 people.
Across the city, residents continued to deal with heavy smoke and falling ash while crews tried to contain the blaze from entering the community.
N.W.T. fire information officer Mike Westwick said the fire could reach the outskirts of Yellowknife by the weekend if it doesn’t rain.
He said the fire could also reach Highway 3 — the main ground transportation artery for Yellowknife — by Thursday.
The N.W.T. is grappling with more than 200 wildfires that have already burned an area four times the size of Prince Edward Island.
Already eight communities have evacuated, representing 15 per cent — or nearly 6,800 people — of the territory’s population.
The territorial government declared a state of emergency late Tuesday, allowing it to access resources to combat what it’s calling an unprecedented wildfire season.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated as new information becomes available.
— More to come…
— With files from The Canadian Press
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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