BREAKING: Yellowknife to begin evacuation tonight as wildfires approach

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.

yads,

Stay safe everyone

someguy3,

After Maui no one’s taking chances.

ivanafterall,
ivanafterall avatar

"Minister orders town to evacuate by noon or face the consequences" has a very Old Testament feel to it.

girlfreddy,

A city the size of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories being destroyed by a wildfire has a decidedly apocalyptic feel to it … so the orders track.

ivanafterall,
ivanafterall avatar

I totally agree it's not funny. It's a tragedy. But I did sincerely misunderstand what I read. "Why the fuck is a minister evacuating a town?" To be fair, I'm American, so the "minister" threw me.

girlfreddy,
@girlfreddy@mastodon.social avatar

@ivanafterall @girlfreddy

Ah yes. The juxtaposition of Canada's Westminster-style gov't (with ministers everywhere, like Britain) vs American democratic republic gov't (seemingly with elections every week) can be confusing.

All good. :)

NakariLexfortaine,

“And know not one soul shall be found upon these lands, for any who remain know His wrath and only the suffering of Hell.

Flee, oh righteous souls, for once the sun is upon it’s apex, the wrath of the Holy Father will consume you all!”

“Dammit, just tell us there’s a fire and we need to leave!”

ZC3rr0r,

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?

UnforgettableName,

macleans.ca/…/what-were-canadas-biggest-mass-evac…

ZC3rr0r,

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.

troyunrau,
@troyunrau@lemmy.ca avatar

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,

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.

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