Minister orders everyone out of Yellowknife, Dettah, Ndilǫ and the Ingraham trail by noon Friday

In a news conference Wednesday evening, Minister Shane Thompson announced a city-wide evacuation order that would involve a “phased approach” with people from areas of the city already under alert (Kam Lake, Grace Lake, Engle industrial area) heading out Wednesday night, alongside people in Dettah.

“The fire now represents a real threat to the city,” Thompson said, adding it could reach the outskirts of the city by the weekend. The fire was about 17 kilometres from the city on Wednesday, he said.

  • ZC3rr0r
    37·
    11 months ago

    Terrible news. Hope everyone gets out safe. I want to say this is unprecedented, as (to my knowledge) this is the first total evacuation of a provincial or territorial capital in history, but I am not 100% sure. Can anyone confirm?

      • ZC3rr0r
        13·
        11 months ago

        Thanks. Apparently I forgot about Winnipeg in the fifties. That said, I can’t see if that was a city-wide evacuation like this one.

        • Troy
          12·
          11 months ago

          Winnipeg also has multiple exits and a huge rural ring of places to escape to outside town. Yellowknife has one road and one airport. I guess technically you could take a boat too if you have one.

          • ZC3rr0r
            7·
            11 months ago

            True, hence why evacuating the whole city is such a big deal. I don’t think it ever happened before. Oh by the way: I read they’re explicitly telling people to not try to evacuate on boat, so perhaps that’s not the best idea.