Northwest Territories reports first wildfires of 2024

The Northwest Territories’ wildfire agency has identified its first active fires of the 2024 season.

Two fires are now listed northwest of Fort Smith on NWT Fire’s map. One is shown about 30 km from Fort Smith on the north side of the Slave River. The other is a kilometer or two northwest of the Salt River’s mouth.

A national fire database states each fire was small as of Sunday morning – two hectares or less – and each was receiving a full response.

At the moment, Fort Smith is the only region in the territory where the fire danger rating is high. A partial fire ban was announced in the town just under a week ago.

NWT Fire has been approached for more information. There was no suggestion in Fort Smith of any immediate reason for concern.

Earlier in the week, NWT Fire had embarked on aerial infrared scans of fire perimeters around Fort Smith from last year, looking for hotspots caused by overwintering fires as the region heats up again.

With a forecast high of 13C on Sunday, Fort Smith was significantly warmer than most other areas of the territory. (Hay River, one of the closest communities to Fort Smith, was expected to be some 10C cooler on Sunday.)

Fort Smith’s drought code – the numerical rating of moisture content – ​​is drier to start this summer than it was last year, Department of Environment and Climate Change South Slave representative Daniel Allaire said at a public meeting in Hay River earlier this week.

At that Tuesday meeting, Allaire said aerial scans had revealed “about eight hotspots” along the perimeter of some 2023 fires near Fort Smith.

“We’ll have to go and have a look at them and see what they are. “I’m sure there were a lot more than that over the winter, but I think a lot of them just burned themselves out,” Allaire said.

Holdover fires – fires that began last year and smoldered beneath the snowpack all winter – are expected to be an early feature of the NWT’s 2024 fire season.

The territory has said some fire crews began training early this year with a view to dealing with holdover fires as their first task of the summer.