B Flat

This summer has not lacked for excitement. The sheer amount of fires in our county and surrounding area have ensured that. Today our town announced that there would be a large increase in vehicle traffic coming through town as more of the Northwest Territories residents are being evacuated.

Earlier this summer a large Indigenous Peoples settlement (Indian Reserve, for the less politically correct ones—you know who you are) ~80km to the east of us got evacuated to our town, filling the hotels and raising the local restaurants’ average food through-rate by a large percent. Economically a good move, but it’s not been so good for the mental health of the displaced ones.

Not long after that, the fire that was burning ~80km to the west of us caused the evacuation of another Indian Reserve and they also ended up in our town. Luckily for them the fire never reached their community so they could go home again after a few weeks.

The community to the east lost over 100 houses to the fire. The only way in to the community is via ferry over the Peace River in summer or an ice bridge in winter, but there are always a couple months in spring and fall when the only way in or out is by air. The burnt houses are to be replaced by mobile homes, but the river was too low to bring them in, so they’ll bring them in once the river has frozen enough to bear the weight. For the fortunate ones whose houses didn’t burn, the cleaners have been in attempting to remove the smoke damage where possible. They’ll get to be back home hopefully before winter. The rest stay on in our local hotels and a couple 500-man open camps that were setup specifically for them.

In the last few weeks the southern part of the Northwest Territories has begun to burn energetically. Dry conditions and higher than normal winds definitely helped the fire spread. Less than a week ago 20% of the NWT population had been evacuated, and now it looks like a much larger percentage will be coming through our town tonight and tomorrow. The ones who came through last weekend drove through a lot of intense heat along the road. Pictures of melted headlights, taillights, mirror caps, and blistered paint illustrate the inferno some had to get through to gain safety. Several vehicles were abandoned along the road and left to burn.

Perhaps next year will be wetter and less burny. We can pray and hope.