CANADA is enduring its worst wildfire season this August, with more than 30,000 people forced to flee from wildfire-threatened cities.
In Yellowknife, capital of the Northwest Territories, firefighters have so far managed to keep the blaze 15 kilometers away aided by light rain, and by dousing the flames with huge streams of water that rose over the skies of the area. Nearly all of its 20,000 people have evacuated south, making the capital almost a ghost town.
At an evacuation center in Edmonton, the capital city of Alberta Province, many people from the Northwest Territories have been waiting for nearly a week on the status of their homes and if they can return.
With her daughter and two dogs, Debbie Mills of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation evacuated from Yellowknife, driving 17 hours and passing through the Hamlet of Enterprise to make it to Edmonton.
“Was really sad because you could see all the burnt areas and once we got to enterprise that’s when you saw 95 percent of the homes were burnt,” Debbie Mills, Yellowknife Resident said.
Eddie and Mary Adele Chocolate of the Tlicho First Nation are also stuck in Edmonton. In order to get to their home in Gameti in the Northwest Territories, they need to catch a flight from Yellowknife Airport, which is currently off-limits.
“I hear they (aircraft) are parked in Edmonton. There’s no use going back to Yellowknife and try to catch a flight. There’s no flight at all. It’s all canceled they say. We’re far away,” Mary Adele Chocolate, Northwest Territories Resident said.
Some evacuees were reluctant to leave their homes in the first place.
Tracy Therrien said she wanted to make herself an essential worker by cooking and cleaning for the firefighters. But friends finally convinced her to go.
“I’m more concerned about the workers that are left behind and to add that extra stress of having to be rescued or evacuated because they have the most tremendous job right now, they don’t need that additional problem,” Tracy Therrien, Yellowknife, Resident said.
For now, she’s taken on a new job— helping to make sure the evacuees feel comfortable and cared for in their new, but hopefully temporary residence.
Meanwhile, Yellowknife resident Lorraine Mazirir drove with her family from Yellowknife to Edmonton on British Columbia Highway 3, or the Crowsnest Highway, the only road out of town. She said the situation of the destructive wildfire is still unstable, making the date to come back a mystery.
Her mother Gift Chikopera said their way to the center was a 20-hour nerve-wracking journey as they could see smoke nearly all the way.
“The whole city was just filled with smoke. And you would think maybe we are just being engulfed in flames. It was not an easy thing. But we are grateful that we managed to make it,” Gift Chikopera, Yellowknife Resident said.
The family also said when they arrived in the province of Alberta, they were immediately given free gas and supplies, which were kind gestures that have helped keep them going.
“The human spirit is of resilience. I didn’t know I had the strength to drive for 20 hours on two hours of sleep and still be awake at 03:00 in the morning just trying to make it. I’ve seen how resilient we can be and, you know, the spirit of just being family. No one is discriminating anybody else. The moment they see your number plate, like ‘Oh My God, you are from the Northwest Territories, you are from Yellowknife. Oh, that’s my family.’ you know, we’ve just become closer,” Lorraine Mazirir, Yellowknife Resident said.
