There’s been no change in the size of the wildfire nearest Yellowknife or its distance from the city since Wednesday evening.
The first update on Thursday from NWT Fire set the blaze at 174,103 hectares and it still sat 15 km from the municipal boundary.
Mike Westwick, fire information officer for the North Slave region, stated that the wildfire isn’t expected to hit the outskirts of the city for at least the next 72 hours due to the work done on the ground by fire crews and support from the air.
He did indicate, however, that there would be pressure put on the eastern perimeter of the fire Thursday and Friday because of winds, high temperatures and low moisture in the air due to low humidity.
There was a small operation Wednesday to burn off some vegetation that could provide fuel for the fire and a direct attack on the flames began Wednesday as well.
The Ingraham Trail fire still stood at 50,208 hectares as of Thursday morning and it remained at 4 km at its closest point to Prelude Lake.
Westwick stated that it was highly unlikely that the fire would reach the trail at all this week because of the forecasted winds and fire crews working on keeping the fire at bay.
But the threat of the fire to areas along the trail is still there, he added, with plenty of what’s called “hot line” still vulnerable to the south.
Westwick stated that crews were attacking with water with help from aircraft dropping loads to slow the growth of the flames.
The Dettah fire stood at 49,502 hectares as of Thursday 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 nearest point as of Wednesday.
A large control line stretching from Great Slave Lake through to central Jennejohn Lake had been built, Westwick 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.