'Extreme' fire weather expected over the next 24 hours in N.W.T., but rain is coming

As many N.W.T. communities continue to experience poor air quality, the N'dulee ferry crossing near Wrigley reopened Monday afternoon after being grounded earlier due to the smoke. 

In a Facebook update, the N.W.T.'s Infrastructure department said the ferry had reopened just after 5 p.m., but people should still expect heavy smoke. 

Derek Sutherland, Wrigley's senior administrative officer, told CBC that Monday felt like a bit of a break, but it's still smoky in his community.  

"Today is an improvement. It's definitely not good, but it's definitely an improvement," Sutherland said. 

"The smoke is still intense, very intense."

Sutherland said over the weekend, people in the community were "quite concerned" about health impacts from the smoke and even brought up the idea of evacuating. He also said the N.W.T. government told him they don't evacuate communities over smoke. 

An update from N.W.T. Fire Monday afternoon said a fire burning 20 kilometres south of Wrigley is causing smoke on Highway 1. 

"We can likely expect extreme fire weather and high winds over the next 24 hours," the update said. "Wind direction shifts overnight and some rain starting tomorrow in the southern parts of the territory will hopefully help mitigate fire growth."

Much of the territory is also under air quality advisories over smoke. 

Another fire 34 kilometres west of Kakisa, 40 kilometres south of Fort Providence and seven kilometres south of Highway 1 saw "substantial growth" over the weekend but didn't change much overnight, the update said. 

An incident management team will be arriving to help with that fire and structure protections are being set up in Kakisa and Fort Providence, but N.W.T. Fire noted there is "currently no threat to the communities."

A structure protection unit trailer has also proactively been sent to Wrigley and a crew is setting up sprinklers and structure protection on critical infrastructure and houses and cabins along the river. 

No one from N.W.T. Fire was available for an interview.