Some phone lines down in N.W.T., including in Hay River, in midst of evacuations

Phone lines went down in parts of the N.W.T. Sunday evening at the same time wildfires were forcing several communities to evacuate.

The Town of Hay River said just after 8 p.m. that Northwestel data and phone service had been knocked out locally, limiting the town's ability to communicate with the public.

It said anyone still in the community should gather at the Hay River airport so they can be flown out this evening.

Hay River is one of five N.W.T. communities evacuating today as wildfires, blown by heavy winds, threaten them. It's the second time the town of about 3,500 residents on the southern shore of Great Slave Lake has had to evacuate.

Just after 8 p.m., the RCMP said in an email that wildfires are affecting police phone lines throughout the territory. They asked people to go to local detachments in person if they can't get through by phone.

They added they could not specify which detachments are affected because of "the developing situation."

It wasn't immediately clear how the wildfires were connected to the outages.

The announcement came a couple hours after N.W.T. Fire announced its wildfire report line, 1-877-NWT-FIRE, was down. It asked people to report smoke or fire to the wildfire public information line instead at 1-867-445-5484.

Earlier Sunday afternoon, Northwestel said a "network issue" was disrupting internet, phone and TV services for people in numerous southern N.W.T. communities, including Norman Wells, Fort Good Hope, Tulita, Délı̨nę, Fort Providence, Wrigley and Fort Simpson.