The numbers are enormous in this 22 000 people ordered to leave the capital city of Yellowknife by Road was the initial ask or by air if unable the people of the city have until noon tomorrow to get out because the fires are getting ever closer to the city let’s bring you the
Very latest from Yellowknife the mayor is with me now Rebecca alty mayor ulti I thank you for your time tonight at a crisis situation welcome to power and politics let me ask you first of all how are you doing tonight just hold on for just one moment mayor I
Apologize I’m not able to hear you I think oh there we are you’re back with me all right so like I I’ll just begin exactly what I was saying I’m thinking of you with all of this going you were listening in as I was speaking to minister Blair how are you doing really
In the thick of things of this fight tonight I was gonna say and I didn’t unmute myself and I was gonna say good morning so um it’s it’s been a long day I got a number of hours still ahead of us but um it’s good folks have been
Um evacuating we see long lineups of vehicles but uh you know that’s good to see we’ve got folks leaving by Road also a lot of folks um leaving by plane both the the commercial earlier this morning um as well as the the evacuation flights that have been organized so still a lot
Of work to go uh that’s on the evacuation side and then on the uh the defensive firefighting side crews are out there again working hard to to create the fire breaks to really slow that fire down and minimize any damage it may have if it reaches the community
Okay I’ll come back to the um situation on the fire in just a second but you raise the evacuation so let’s go there so far so far any idea of the percentage of people who have left the city to this point we we don’t I have a number yet
Um do you encourage residents to to log into the evacuation registration portal and it is kind of challenging to get a number when folks are just driving out but we are encouraging folks you know get in the vehicle head out on the highway when it’s safe to do so check
Into the registration portal um we’ll have a better idea with the number of folks going out on flights but um right now we we don’t have that number okay as far as the flight out we saw long lines of people who were going to get on that first afternoon flight uh
Have you heard of any significant issues there or does that seem to be their number scheduled for today does that seem to be progressing as you’d hoped yeah I uh just came off a call with Minister Thompson who’s the the minister of Emergency Management and
Um that was the one thing I was was flagging and um you know they do have to register everybody but it is um once the registration is done flights are coming and and folks are getting on and looking about adding more flights so uh need to speed up that registration process I’d
Say that’s um a bit of a kink in the system right now but once that’s once that’s cleared folks are on the flight and and keep going so I’ll be following up with I think Minister Blair after uh hearing his comments well I was going to
Ask you that you were listening in as I was conversing with him and obviously I asked a number of questions trying to get a little bit more concrete detail on any sort of military airlift assistance that he was I didn’t know if there’d be a promise have you had any further
Discussions do you think something like that with the aircraft that is on standby close at hand in Yellowknife or nearby in Edmonton have you heard anything concretely in terms of a military assistance um the military is assisting I would say to to do the broad statement you know
They have been here since Tuesday they’ve been working diligently on this evacuation um actually activating the planes and going hasn’t been the step yet but that’s where I’m looking to to see an improvement in the the registration and then um hoping to get those planes going
All right well if you hear anything back let us know we’ll be in further contact if we can get that confirmed we’re looking to do that for sure at this point mayor how far away is the fire from Yellowknife you know the good news in it all was
Yesterday the fire didn’t move as much as uh anticipated um the forecast was that it would be five kilometers closer to the community and it only moved one kilometer that still puts it at about 16 kilometers from the community so um it is still coming the winds aren’t
Favorable in the fact that they’re they are continuing to to push um from the west but um you know crews are working hard getting those fire breaks in in place so winds aren’t helping um but overall for the moment is Yellowknife do you consider the city safe
Yeah and that’s what we wanted to when we issued the evacuation order yesterday was um recognizing that the the fire wasn’t here and so to be able to do the evacuation now um was important and the highway was still open and so the challenge of
Challenge of course in all of this is we only have one Road in and out that’s the road where the fire is located so um this fire has been burning for the past month and so the highway has been open and closed multiple times due to
Too heavy of smoke or if the fire is getting too close so we did want to take a look with um the fire continuing to approach Yellow Knife looking at the weather forecast uh to to get that road evacuation going as soon as possible given that fact people in the community
Knowing it would be congested if they had to leave certainly we’ve heard from some people who’ve expressed to CBC News Mayor ulti that they wish that evacuation order had come sooner to get them as much time as possible to leave is that fair criticism it’s still a number of days to leave and
You know whether we issue the evacuation order on Monday Tuesday Wednesday you were still going to have lineups of cars we only have one highway it’s a one lane Highway you’re naturally going to be Bumper to Bumper with folks um so you know at the start of the week
We already had folks preemptively leaving you know the smoke was too much the stress was too much folks decided they wanted to to take their family elsewhere um but yeah once the evacuation order came out that’s where where the the vehicles really started to to line up and just continuing to encourage people
To to drive safely it is um congested and if it’s if vehicles are stopped there’s a reason don’t pass people um there’s a reason that folks are stopped what is your plan personally uh I am part of the emergency management team so we will be here um continue to monitor the situation if
Anything were to change and and uh we were at risk we would do the the full evacuation all essential employees would be would be evacuated uh but at this stage it’s it’s not the case so continuing um here in Yellowknife with all the other essential workers and
What’s it like if I might ask you here you are in the midst of this crisis and the city’s never been through an evacuation or an incident of this magnitude you’re the person leading at this moment what’s the response yeah you feel like yeah no no it’s uh it’s it’s a big
Weight on the shoulders pretty difficult situation but um you know staying calm cool collected we’ve got to make good decisions um I know there’s a million different opinions on should do this should do that should do that um we paid folks to be those subject matter experts they provide advice and
We listen to that take that um you know push and Lobby when when stuff looks like needs Improvement um but it’s you know taking it one step at a time one day one challenge at a time
‘We only have one road in and out, which is the road where the fire is located,’ Yellowknife Mayor Rebecca Alty said. On Wednesday, tens of thousands of Yellowknife residents were ordered to leave the city by noon on August 18.
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The NWT has warmed 2.8 C due to climate change – the highest rise of any jurisdiction in Canada.
Thank you so much to all the firefighters! Many Canadians value your efforts to keep our communities safe! To those who are standing in the way of climate action to reduce fossil fuel CO2 emissions – stop increasing the danger to fire-fighters, first responders, air crews, and CDN military personnel – all of whom are on the front lines of the climate crisis!!!
Don't worry, everything is safe!
BUT, we're just going to evacuate an entire CITY!!
NOTHING to see!
How far is the next city from Yellowknife?
(My google maps doesnt work)
Can fly to the moon, but you can’t put a fire out
Stress and anxiety all about upheaval ? no plan where they are going leaving their homes and belongings and jobs behind them ? there are no accidents it’s all by design !
I never watch P&P Zzzzz, but I love Heather, so hopefully she’s a regular
Stay safe everyone
The climate is getting more extreme and there will be more natural disasters.?
I live in California and these fires are absolutely devastating, I hope all the good people of Yellowknife take heed and leave a.s.a.p., hopefully it won't cause the damage we have seen here. God's speed!
Every city should have a mayor with the caliber of Rebecca Alty. She has kept her city informed of the situation, made the difficult decisions that needed to be made. I'm sure it has been a very stressful few weeks of late but she is obviously a leader for the people.
TRUST IS BROKEN TRUDEAU HAS DESTROYED THE TRUST IN OUR INSTITUTION
THE NEWS DEFENDS CRIMINALS ITS A DARK CLOUD OVER CANADA
think they are being evacuated but they are being drafted to war
Good luck to all these folks
This is scary. I hope everyone makes it out and there aren't any casualities.
what happens at the ferry – bottleneck?
Is anybody going to stay and fight the fire?
This is normal, the arctic is know for being really hot and on fire, everything is fine. It's probably the Chinaeese space lasers, and not the climate change scientist have been warning us about for 120 years. I'm glad the government has promised to limit emissions 5% by 2080. Everything will be fine.
Half a century ago fire raced through the forest without destroying any homes. Roads, farm fields and sports grounds separated towns from forest, protecting them from wildfire.
Now, when property is developed, coniferous trees that are in the decline stage of their life cycle, aka turpentine bombs ready to ignite, instead of being replaced with new plantings of deciduous trees are permitted to remain, posing a fire hazard.
That is because man, governed by emotion—that has supplanted his intellect—following a hearty beefsteak repast and wishing to establish that he is full of compassion and not one who would hurt anything hastens to rescue forestland. Better a town is reduced to ashes than to fell a tree, be consumed with guilt and be declared a denier.
This is incredible, Canadian firefighters are the second highest paid world wide after US firefighters, both have the best and most modern equipment for firefighting, this shows us that it is not the equipment but rather human dexterity, what a shame, no pride.
ANOTHER MAUI, AND U CANT BLAME NATURE PERIOD!!!!!!
What is going on with all these fires everywhere something isnt right with all of them
As frustrated as evacuees may be trying to register to fly out or drive to a far away shelter, the leaders are being safe by giving everyone as much warning as possible. I think it will prevent the kind of deaths like from heart attack we see when residents are taken by surprise and scared perhaps trying to save last minute items or pets as flames reach their neighborhood. I’m sure if the town is spared that critics will complain it was overly cautious but the still smoldering ashes of Lahaina may prevent that.
I imagine there must be hundreds or even thousands of firefighters fighting fires, building firebreaks, setting up sprinkler systems, etc. All these people need to be supported with logistics. I expect that, even with the evacuations, you will still have a few thousand people there, working hard to fight the fires and save the city.
The mayor is just happy to be on national TV. Nothing ever happens up there.
There is no solution without Jesus Christ…..
Let clear tree and make a strip of barren dirt that cant burn… enclosing the town..
In just a few months we went from the LEAST wildfires in a year to the MOST wildfires in a year?? With ZERO explanation. While northern Vermont was underwater and flooded just to the north hundreds of wildfires were burning. With ZERO explanation. Nova Scotia had a record number (172) of wildfires, even with an average to above-average amount of rain. With ZERO explanation. Sorry not buying it…
What about the pets and animals???? i hope they are not left behind and everybody makes out safely… animals in the wild though??
It used to be that in the case of a large fire threatening a populous, every able bodied man would be enlisted or voluntarily join to be fire fighters and put that fire out to protect what they built and there community, utilizing there heavy equipment from farms and construction companies. But now, just register with the military and evacuate. im sure everyone who wanted to do something was told no and threatened with fines. Not much talk about what you're doing to fight the fire. Is there a plan ? ???
Justin Trudeau’s minions, setting fires all across Canada!!!! Nothing to see here?????
This is a national disaster, where is the federal government??!!
Where the F is
Trudeau? Hide your bank accounts.
My heart goes out to everyone ? i can't begin to imagine how stressful this is for everyone having to evacuate and stand in line for hours and hours and to leave your home and whole life behind. Thankyou to All Fire Fighters ?Battling these Wild Fires and to Everyone staying behind. Be Safe! ?
Where is peoples car?! What happen it’s rubbing from all they have to send to 15 min city’s?!
Where is government why don’t have tools not put fire down?! Why Fire start from all direction? In same time?!
The government has microwave's directed at your Land, so you'll evacuate and than they'll take advantage of the vacancy.
So sad! But then we are living in the end times, the rapture and the 7year Tribulation are right around the corner. Please get rapture ready: accept JESUS CHRIST as your Lord and Savior today!!! (JESUS is GOD, see John 1!) Read biblical end times prophecy, listen to Dr. Ron Rhodes on end times chronology.
PS: what about the pets? I didn't see any animals in these lineups.
Allahu Akbar… May ALLAH bless and lead you to the best life he wanted to us… Because I know that everyone can't escape to the will of ALLAH s.w.a… All what we need is to be closer to ALLAH s.w.a because that's the best we can do.???.. Its hurt what others experiencing as of this moment but we need to accept it… May ALLAH bless you all and take care of you All and protect you all always and guide us the best life what ALLAH s.w.a wanted to be for us…
It's a 1-lane highway at 6:04 so everybody in Town can only arrive or leave together. We had oodles of roads like that in England but English drivers could often see an extra lane if they squinted so they gave it a bash.