Nahanni Butte residents told to stay out of community, as officials monitor nearby wildfire

Residents of Nahanni Butte, N.W.T., are being asked to delay returninghome, after they were driven out of their community Thursdaynight by a wildfire 6 km away.

This morning, officials with the department of Municipal and Community Affairs said the 80 residents who left were clear to go home, but now saythey should stay away an extra day, as a precaution.

• Forest fire nearNahanniButte not spreading toward the community, says ENR

"There isn't a threat to the community at this time,"said Mike Drake Friday afternoon,superintendent for the Deh Cho region for Municipal and Community Affairs. "There isn't a wall of fire outside the community."

Drake said wildfire officials will re-evaluate the fire Saturday, and decide whether it's safe to return.

Drake said the decision to keep people out of NahanniButte until at least Saturday came from new informationfrom fire crews who flew over the fire on Friday.

Earl Hope lives inNahanniButte, and joined officials in the helicopter to survey the fire, which he says is now burning away from the community.

"The wind has died down, and the smoke is not too bad," he said Friday afternoon."There are still embers coming out, but it's not as bad as yesterday."

Hope said the fire has grown to 7,000 hectares, from 2,500 hectares last week.

He supports the decision to keep people out of the community.

"We have 10 km of an access road to get to our boats," said Hope."If the fire gets to the access road then we're going to be stuck in this community."

Late night evacuation

Community members made the decision to evacuate Thursday night after the fire, which has been smoulderingin the mountains west of NahanniButte for weeks, suddenly took off in strong winds.

Many from the community of about 100 headed to Fort Liard, 90 kilometres south of NahanniButte, where they have family members.

Hope said Friday the wind has since died down, clearing some of the smoke.

"We can see blue skies. It's a lot better than yesterday."

'Probably the worst of itis over': ENR

The territory's Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) said Friday morning the fire was burning about sixkilometres from Nahanni Butte, partially blocked from the community by the South Nahanni River.

Richard Olsen, manager of fire operations for the territory, said hot, dry, windy conditions on Thursday pushed a lot of smoke into the community. But he said the fire is not an immediate or potential threat.

"Probably the worst of it is over," said Olsen.

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Olsen says the warmer-than-usual temperatures this fall are about to end.

"We are projecting that over the short term there will be a little more growth in the next 24 hours but it looks like we'll get off of the hot, dry weather back to seasonal, cool temperatures, and less opportunities for the fire itself to have any significant movement," Olsen said.

Fire crews will be setting up sprinklers in the community, and water bombers are in the areakeeping the fire under control.

Burning for weeks

As they head back, some residents ofNahanniButteare asking why the department didn't do moresoonerto stop a fire that's been burning for weeks.

"They should've shut this fire off when it first started. It was just a small one and now it's out of control," said Earl Hope.

"More could've been done."

Olsen says fires burn according to fuel trees, that isas well as weather and topography.

"When it first started," Olsen says, "it was up on a really high, sloped area towards the foothills where the mountains are, in an area where we would not normally fight fires. It's pretty unsafe for fire crews to operate in."

Olsen says his team will continue to monitor the fire, and make sure the community is kept informed.