Entire city forced to evacuate as Canada's wildfires get worse; US will see smoky air again

"Unprecedented" wildfires closing in on the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories prompted citywide evacuations by land and sky Thursday, officials said.

Officials instructed residents of the highest-risk areas of Yellowknife – Ingraham Trail, Dettah, Kam Lake, Grace Lake and Engle Business District – to evacuate immediately, while others had until Friday afternoon to leave the city of about 20,000 people. The fire was about 10 miles out as the evacuation order was issued late Wednesday to Yellowknife and neighboring First Nations communities of Ndilo and Dettah.

"We’re all tired of the word unprecedented, yet there is no other way to describe this situation in the Northwest Territories," Caroline Cochrane, premier of the Northwest Territories, said late Wednesday.

Canada has been plagued by the worst wildfire season on record, with over 1,000 active wildfires burning as of Thursday and some 236 active wildfires in the Northwest Territories. At times throughout the summer, smoke from Canadian wildfires has made its way to parts of the United States, blanketing skylines with an orange haze.

“I want to be clear that the city is not in immediate danger and there’s a safe window for residents to leave the city by road and by air,” Shane Thompson, a government minister for the Territories, said at a news conference. “Without rain, it is possible it will reach the city outskirts by the weekend."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was expected to convene an urgent meeting Thursday with officials to discuss the evacuation.

The evacuation order said it's safe for residents who have vehicles and can drive to leave that way, and if visibility becomes limited due to wildfire smoke, officials will escort drivers through the active fire zone. Those with no other way of leaving, especially those who are high risk due to medical conditions, should register for evacuation flights, the order said. Air evacuations will begin Thursday at 1 p.m. local time.

Residents who want to shelter in place can go to designated facilities as a temporary measure, the order said, "and all residents who are planning to shelter in place are asked to act with kindness towards their community members." People should not attempt to evacuate by boat on Great Slave Lake to a neighboring island or cabin because the air quality is expected to decline.

The City of Yellowknife said it's working to prevent destruction by constructing firebreaks, removing vegetation that could act as fuel for the fire and establishing sprinkler lines.

Authorities said services in the city were closing, and a Yellowknife hospital announced it was reducing services, closing the intensive care unit and transferring most long-term care patients to other facilities.

Canada's military has been assisting local firefighters and flying people out on Hercules aircraft as part of what officials called the largest airlift in the territory's history. Many highways were also closed as of Wednesday, and photos showed a long line of vehicles on the only highway out of Yellowknife.

Eight communities totaling nearly 6,800 people had already evacuated Wednesday, according to Mike Westwick, the region's fire information officer.

Across the lake from Yellowknife in Hay River, one mother evacuating on Sunday afternoon told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that her car began to melt as her family drove away from the fire hours after an evacuation order.

"You couldn't see anything — we were driving through embers," Lisa Mundy told the news outlet.

Smoke from wildfires to impact US air quality again

An air quality alert was issued across the entire state of Wisconsin, and central and northeastern Minnesota, from Thursday morning through Monday as smoke coming from the Northwest Territories was expected to render the air unhealthy for sensitive groups or unhealthy.

"Heavy ground-level smoke from wildfires in the Northwest Territories of Canada is moving south across central Canada and towards Minnesota on Wednesday," the National Weather Service said. "A strong cold front will bring this smoke across the entire state on Thursday."

The weather service said smoke would reach the border with Canada by midnight Thursday before spreading to the Twin Cities by noon and southern Minnesota by 3 p.m.

Contributing: The Associated Press