NWT Fire is reporting that they found four new fires on Saturday, May 25. One of them happened in Yellowknife behind the Staples store.
The fire was found at noon on Saturday and lasted about 20 minutes before it was put out, said Mike Westwick, a GNWT fire information officer.
The Yellowknife fire department responded to the fire first, he said.
Titled ZF004, the fire was human-caused, NWT Fire reported, the result of an illegal campfire.
"You can't be leaving your fires unattended," said Westwick. He added that unattended campfires are the number one cause of wildfires by people in the NWT and said they've resulted in millions of dollars of damage over the past five years.
As for NWT Fire, they said that, with dry conditions, the illegal campfire behind Staples could have gotten out of control, threatening the property and lives of Yellowknife residents as a consequence.
There are currently 13 active fires in the NWT. About 90 minutes northwest of Yellowknife is one of them, titled ZF003.
That fire is about a kilometre away from the Snare Hydro system. According to the Department Environment and Climate Change, it's under control, with no further threat to assets or infrastructure.
As for older fires, an overwinter fire seems like the territory's biggest problem at the moment. According to NWT Fire, it's more than 9,900 hectares in size and is burning on both sides of Highway 1 near the Redknife River about 70 km from the community of Jean Marie River.
"Extremely dry days are ahead across much of the NWT. Fire danger is at, or expected to reach, high or extreme in most areas of the North Slave, South Slave, and Dehcho," said NWT Fire. "This is no time to be complacent - under these conditions, fires can start easily, spread quickly, and become extremely difficult to control."