Canadian firefighters are racing against advancing flames on Friday to evacuate all residents from the remote northern city of Yellowknife, with unfavorable winds threatening to complicate one of the biggest rescue efforts of the fire season.
In Yellowknife, the capital city of Northwest Territories, fire crews and water bombers are trying to save the city of about 20,000 people from aSome 10 evacuation planes ferried about 1,500 people out of the city on Thursday and about 22 flights are due out on Friday, while scores of people left via road, authorities said.
"We're heading into a critical couple of days in management of this wildfire," Mike Westwick, the fire information officer for Yellowknife told reporters on Thursday.The expanse of fire risk and disruption to life and land underscores the severity of the worst-on-record Canadian wildfire season this year, with more than 1,000 active fires burning across the country, including 265 in the Northwest Territories.
"The hot dry temperatures, mixed with forecasted dry lightning has increased the risk of wildfires throughout much of British Columbia," provincial Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma told a briefing on Thursday.
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