N.W.T. wildfire crews fighting 12 of 38 active fires as season ramps up

The Northwest Territories wildfire season is underway with 38 active fires as of Friday and a season that is shaping up to have more fires than the 10-year average, said environment department fire operations manager, Richard Olsen.

"We started off the spring a little bit slow, but definitely by the time we got into the middle and late-June, things got quite active," Olsen said.

However, the firefighters are seeing a smaller area burned this year so far.

This season, wildfire crews have extinguished 18 out of 56 total fires. 

Out of 38 fires active as of Friday, the crews are responding to 12 fires close to "high-value" areas, including two fires in the Dehcho, one south of Wrigley and another east of Sambaa K'e. 

They are fighting fires south of Kakisa, south of Fort Resolution and another just 14 kilometres north of Wekweètì.

If you're a resident in the Yellowknife area seeing smoke, Olsen said it's likely from the fire in the area of Defeat Lake, 30 kilometres from Dettah.

Fire crews are putting their highest priority on fires in the North Slave because conditions have been very dry and they've received very little rain over the last month.

"Those are the [fires] that have the greatest chance for growth," he said. 

The crews have some concern about a fire near Fort Resolution which has grown into a swampy area, but Olsen said that fire is still a lower risk to the community than the fires in the North Slave. 

In total, the wildfires this year have affected 17,039 hectares or 170 square kilometres.

The 2014 fire season in the N.W.T., in comparison, burned 34,000 square kilometres of forest.

Olsen said ENR makes decisions about what to protect when it comes to wildfire like caribou habitat and areas that are used for hunting or other game like moose using the policy set in the early 90s. 

"One thing is always to recognize that fires are a natural force in the N.W.T. It's going to occur and it's important for the ecological health of the forest so we don't want to interfere with that too much or we'll end up with an unhealthy forest."