Transportation authorities in the Northwest Territories say the highway out of Fort Smith has closed due to wildfires.
Authorities had been warning that Highway 5 into Fort Smith could be shut as nearby fires continued to burn, and on Sunday afternoon the territory’s infrastructure department said the route was no longer open.
Evacuation orders were issued Saturday for Fort Smith, with a population of about 2,000, as well as for Smith’s Landing First Nation and the Alberta hamlet of Fort Fitzgerald.
Fort Smith Mayor Fred Daniels said in a video posted online shortly before the highway shut that its closure could be imminent, and that the last evacuation bus would leave the community at 2 p.m. local time.
“Thank you for the awesome evacuation. It went smoothly,” Daniels said, while also thanking firefighters, EMS and wildfire crews.
“You’ve done a heck of a job.”
Daniels also noted the winds in Fort Smith were “really picking up” and that it would likely get very smoky in Fort Smith.
The town posted online that anyone remaining in the community should now shelter in place.
Highway 5 connects Fort Smith and the other evacuated communities with Hay River, NWT, near the south shore of Great Slave Lake, where many evacuees are being taken.
A number of fires are burning in the vicinity but the ones that prompted the evacuation order for Fort Smith, according to an update issued by NWT Fire on Saturday evening, are the Wood Buffalo National Park wildfires.
Those fires are being fought by Parks Canada as well as firefighters from Alberta and the NWT.
Alberta Wildfire noted in an update Sunday afternoon that the Wood Buffalo fires are 432,320 hectares in size and are approximately 25 to 35 kilometres west and southwest of Fort Smith.
“Due to predicted weather and extreme fire behaviour over the next few days, a number of precautionary evacuation orders have been issued. While no communities are imminently threatened by this wildfire, there is concern over access via Highway 5, which has now been closed,” the Alberta update said.
—By The Canadian Press