Fort Good Hope wildfire has not yet reached community: officials

The Fort Good Hope fire hasn't yet reached the community and for now officials are hopeful. But they said the wind could still change and but buildings at risk.

The wildfire threatening Fort Good Hope in the Northwest Territories has not reached the community yet and officials say, for now, it appears the wind will push it away from buildings.

“I believe the community will be satisfied because the community will be able to go home at the end of the day (when the fire is extinguished),” Chief Collin Pierrot said during a press conference.

But he later said he didn’t know when that would happen.

“Everything is still up in the as to whether the wind will change direction and blow right back into the community and put the community back at threat right now,” he said.

“We haven’t lost any houses, any buildings or any structures,” Pierrot added.

Northwest Territories Fire information officer Frank McKay said the fire is still out of control and the weather isn’t helping.

“We’re going to have a little bit of dry hot weather coming so it will probably increase the fire behaviour somewhat,” Frank McKay told reporters.

The fire ignited on Saturday when someone or some people abandoned a campfire four kilometres away from Fort Good Hope, officials believe, and it quickly grew and burned towards the community of 500.