Thousands flee as ‘unprecedented’ fires hit Canada’s Northwest Territories

Canadians have crammed into a local airport and lined up along a major highway out of the Northwest Territories to escape wildfires, a day after authorities warned the blazes were moving closer to the territory’s capital and largest city, Yellowknife.

Canadians have crammed into a local airport and lined up along a major highway out of the Northwest Territories to escape wildfires, a day after authorities warned the blazes were moving closer to the territory’s capital and largest city, Yellowknife.

The Canadian government said Prime Justin Trudeau Minister will convene an emergency committee, known as the Incident Response Group, on Thursday to discuss the wildfires – the latest in a series of widespread blazes to hit the country so far this year.

Authorities had called on Yellowknife’s nearly 20,000 residents to leave the city by Friday, and an evacuation order was also issued for surrounding communities.

“I have asthma and the wildfire smoke was making it increasingly difficult to do anything,” Tiffany Champagne, who was waiting for a flight at the Yellowknife airport, told Canada’s public broadcaster, CBC. “I’m just kind of mentally checked out at this point.”

The airport had warned residents on Wednesday to arrive at least two hours ahead of their flights because of “increased passenger traffic”.

Canada is going through its worst wildfire season on record with more than 1,000 active fires burning across the country, including more than 200 in the Northwest Territories alone.