Fire activity was expected to increase today as the temperature rose a bit, coinciding with less humidity in the air.
But that didn’t mean the fire would spread, according to the latest update from NWT Fire.
The update on Wednesday afternoon measured the blaze at 174,103 hectares and still 15 km from the Yellowknife city limits.
Frank McKay, a wildfire information officer with the Department of Environment and Climate Change, stated that negligible fire movement towards Yellowknife was expected on Wednesday and the flames are highly unlikely to reach the outskirts of Yellowknife in the next few days as the blaze has been held at bay with aerial support, rain and a downturn in weather.
The precipitation seen over the last few days meant firefighters were able to begin a direct attack on the fire and build containment lines.
But McKay warned very little precipitation is expected over the next week or so and that could mean flare-ups in some areas.
There are more than 300 people fighting the blaze, including Canadian Armed Forces personnel, 13 helicopters, and many pieces of heavy equipment, bolstered by aerial support fortifying containment lines, a City of Yellowknife incident management team response, structural firefighter imports and various contractors.
The Ingraham Trail fire had no change overnight, still sitting at 50,208 hectares. But the big change is that the fire is not expected to reach the trail itself because of wind conditions along with the work done by firefighters.
McKay stated there is still a threat to structures along the trail as well as to lakes and rivers in the area. Three structures have been lost to date because of the fire, according to the latest numbers.
The Dettah fire stood at 49,502 hectares and sat 29 km southeast of the community. Dettah, Ndilo and Yellowknife are not currently at risk because of the blaze and flames have not yet reached Jennejohn Lake — the wildfire burned 7 km south of the lake at its closest point as of Wednesday.
A large control line stretching from Great Slave Lake through to central Jennejohn Lake had been built, McKay said. Fire retardant will hopefully head off the northward and westward growth toward the Ingraham Trail and Dettah, with extra retardant dropped on Tuesday to hem in the northwest part of the blaze.