NWT wildfire evacuees recount flights, long drives as crisis continues
After two evacuations and hundreds of kilometres along smoky highways, Ramanda Sanderson has finally found safety from the fires that are ravaging her Northwest Territories home.
“Being evacuated two times in 24 hours is nothing likeI have ever experienced,” she said in an email from the Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement in Alberta, far from where she started earlier this week.
“Minutes feel like hours and days never seem to end.”
Sanderson is one of thousands of N.W.T. residents who have fled the 236 wildfires tearing through the northern boreal forest https://globalnews.ca/news/9894731/wildfires-shut-evacuation-routes-out-of-nwt-towns-some-being-transported-by-air/. More than 20,000 square kilometres have been burned, an area almost four times the size of Prince Edward Island.
Evacuations have been ordered for Fort Smith, Enterprise, Jean Marie River and Hay River.
Many highways have been closed by the fires and the territory is mounting what officials call the largest airlift in its history. The Canadian Forces are on the ground helping firefighters https://globalnews.ca/news/9897126/northwest-territories-wildfires-yellowknife-armed-forces/ and flying evacuees out on Hercules aircraft. |Read more https://globalnews.ca/news/9897940/northwest-territories-wildfires-evacuees-memories/|
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