Emergency Evacuation Challenges in Remote Canadian Villages as Forest Fires Rage

Separated by several hundred kilometers from each other, these villages are “particularly difficult” to evacuate by land, explains Mike Westwick, of the territorial fire department, adding that a contingent of 120 soldiers is deployed Tuesday to facilitate air evacuations .

After the territorial capital Yellowknife Monday evening, threatened by a blaze 20km from its walls, it was the turn of the authorities of the Northwest Territories (NWT) to declare a state of emergency Tuesday evening.

The situation “is changing rapidly and the needs on the ground are changing quickly,” the government said in a statement.

“We are in a crisis situation and our government is using all the tools at its disposal,” said Territorial Environment Minister Shane Thompson, stressing that this allows her “to access resources and deploy them”.

“I am heartbroken thinking of the people of the NWT struggling with devastating forest fires,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the X network (ex-Twitter).

The neighboring province of British Columbia, also hard hit by forest fires, recorded a mercury above the 40 degrees Celsius mark, a first this year in Canada, the ministry told AFP on Tuesday. of the environment.

2023-08-16 09:22:59
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