No additional buildings lost to Hay River wildfire, heat warning issued
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Despite challenging conditions on Sunday that pushed a massive wildfire toward Hay River, N.W.T., fire officials say no additional buildings have burned.
Kandis Jameson, Hay River's mayor, said the wildfire grew on its east side closest to the town on Sunday, reaching the junction of Highways 2 and 5, and the area of Delancey Estates.
"It's in our community," she said. "But they managed to hold this fire back and we didn't lose anything. So it was a win for us yesterday."
On Friday, a "blow-up event" caused a wall of flame to rush toward the community. The fire ultimately burned a cabin and travel trailer in its advance.
Essentially all non-firefighters that were left in the community were told to leave, including Jameson.
"It was very, very hard to leave, but it was the right thing to do," she said.
Now in Edmonton, Jameson said she felt "out of the loop when you've been working shoulder-to-shoulder with these people."
She also said that the town is aware of some residents still in the community.
"When you pull essential personnel, it's a very good trigger that we've got a huge problem," he said. "The only people that should have been on the ground are those that were fighting this, so I just urge everybody to be aware of what's happening around them."
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While conditions are expected to ease slightly on Monday, Jameson said crews are facing another "battle" and the community is "not out of the woods yet."
Heat warning until mid week
Early Monday morning, Environment Canada issued a heat warning for the region around Hay River and Enterprise, N.W.T.
It says "daytime highs reaching 29 to 35 C combined with overnight lows near 14 C will continue until mid-week."
"When you've got hot temperatures and low levels of moisture in the air, you get bigger fire activity," Mike Westwick told CBC News Network Monday morning.
Westwick, a fire information officer with the territorial government, added, "We're going to be putting everything into pushing back on that."
A fire threatening Hay River is pictured burning across from the West Channel dock near Hay River, N.W.T., on Friday night. (Hans Wiedemann/Facebook)
As of N.W.T. Fire's latest update, the wildfire remains about 1.5 kilometres from the town's centre.
Westwick said crews would be working to update distances on Monday as visibility issues made it difficult to get accurate measurements on Sunday.
"The key message from last night is that there were no structures observed lost, which is really a testament to the great work done by the team," he said.
Part of that work includes controlled burns to steer the fire into areas that make it easier for crews to fight the fire on the ground and from the air.
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The article was written by Francis Tessier-Burns and published for CBC News. With files from Hilary Bird.
