A portion of Highway 1 has been closed by the Department of Infrastructure due to a new active wildfire.
The announcement was made on the department's Facebook page just before 4 p.m. Friday afternoon with the section of road between kilometre 188 and kilometre 375 affected because of flames at kilometre 305. It also means the access road to Jean Marie River is also affected, but the fire is of no threat to the community.
In a Thursday evening release, Mike Westwick, manager of wildfire prevention and mitigation with the Department of Environment and Climate Change, stated that the fire is currently 70 km northwest from Jean Marie River and that's it is an overwinter fire.
This comes as Fort Liard was placed on evacuation notice earlier in the day because of a wildfire burning approximately 22 kilometres southwest of Fort Liard. It's been held at seven hectares thus far, but NWT Fire warned if the fire breaches containment, they won't be able to attack it directly anymore.
"Heavy winds entering the area beginning this afternoon may challenge containment efforts," said NWT wildfire information officer Shannon Graf. "If the fire breaks through containment, direct action will not be possible under these conditions to protect the safety of responders. With this in mind, sprinklers are being deployed in the community of Fort Liard as a precaution and preparedness measure."
As well, the Hay River Fire Department stated on Friday afternoon that its members were responding to an underground fire on Patterson Road. The fire was reportedly contained within an area that was previously burned.
There is no risk to the public, stated the town in a Facebook post, but smoke would be visible. People were being asked to stay clear of the area to allow crews to complete the work.
A further fire was reported opposite the Aurora Wood Pellets yard near Enterprise. Westwick indicated that it's believed to be person-caused and will be fought with an assessment to follow.
Also, a suspected person-caused fire has been spotted east of Sambaa K'e.
This fire, believed to be human caused, started roughly 1 km southeast of the community. Westwick stated that ground crews are fighting the fire, which sat at less than one hectare in size as of Friday evening. Winds from the west were expected to push the fire away from community, but smoke may be visible. The community is not currently at threat.