The wildfire near Fort Liard continues to burn out of control as of Wednesday, but the good news is that it doesn't appear to have grown much in the past 24 hours.
The latest update from NWT Fire on Wednesday afternoon showed that the blaze held steady at 873 hectares in size and still sat 19 km southwest of the community. Those numbers were the same as they were in Tuesday's update.
According to Mike Westwick, information officer for the fire known as FS002, conditions on Wednesday are favourable with winds coming primarily from the northeast at 10 km/h gusting up to 25 km/h with cooler temperatures expected.
Westwick stated that should keep fire activity lower and give crews a good opportunity to get work done.
"Winds coming from the north should push the fire back on itself and take pressure off lines of defence built to prevent fire from crossing the Liard River," he stated.
The forecast for Thursday should see the temperature rise to around 16 C, but a forecast drop in air moisture means a potentially dry day and that could see the fire begin to flame up.
Winds are expected to come mostly from the north, which Westwick indicated would be favourable for continued progress on containing the fire.
There is still no structure loss as a result of the fire, he added.
Helicopters are expected to continue bucketing throughout the day to keep fire intensity down across the area, while fire crews are blacklining – extinguishing all fuel within the fire perimeter’s edge – and will continue to work their way in.
Westwick stated that crews are taking advantage of the good conditions to move to the west side of the Liard River to start working along the north end of the fire to limit growth toward the community.