“Northerners are the toughest people on the planet, and we come together in a crisis” |
| This man is helping evacuate fire-plagued Yellowknife | | The north is burning. Since early spring, forest fires have raged across the Northwest Territories. But in the last week, the flames reached the territory’s biggest population centres. On Wednesday, Yellowknife residents were ordered to leave within 36 hours as fires burned just kilometres from city limits and officials feared it might block the only road going in and out. Kieron Testart is director of economic development of Yellowknives Dene First Nation, and a former MLA who is running again in the upcoming territorial election. As an essential staffer, Testart is one of the few people left in Yellowknife. He is helping to ensure the safe evacuation of Yellowknives Dene First Nation and keeping essential services going for those who have sheltered in place. We spoke to Testart late on Thursday afternoon, almost 24 hours after the evacuation order was given by the territorial government. | | | | Heavy smoke from nearby wildfires fills the sky in Yellowknife on Tuesday, August 15, 2023. (Photograph by Angela Gzowski/The Canadian Press.) |
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| | | | | | | Forest fires have been burning all summer in the Northwest Territories. Did you think they would threaten Yellowknife? We’ve been through this before. There’s only one road into Yellowknife, and in 2014, that road was cut off by fires. People were quite anxious about that at the time, but we got through it. The fire got quite close, but it didn’t breach the community boundaries. We knew this fire was bad, but I don’t think anyone thought it would get this close. When you’re imagining evacuating the capital, it just didn’t seem like it was a possibility. Was there a day when you said to yourself, ‘This is really serious, I might have to consider evacuating’? It was last Friday. That’s when reality hit—the fires were very close. We knew if the wind changed it was going to get bad. That was at the same time that Hay River, Enterprise, Fort Smith and K’atl’odeeche First Nation were being evacuated. That’s every major population centre in the southern part of the territory—it’s almost like all of southwestern Ontario having to leave. That was a wake-up call that we needed to get our ducks in order. My wife and I made a plan and packed some bags and we were thinking the worst could happen. But it was very surreal when we got the actual evacuation order. | | |
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