Home News Raging wildfires trigger mass evacuation in Canada’s Northwest Territories Canada is experiencing the worst wildfire season on record with more than 1,000 active fires burning across the country by Bloomberg August 18, 2023 Image credit: Getty Images Wildfires have forced an evacuation of Yellowknife, the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories. Officials with the territorial government told residents in the highest-risk areas to evacuate immediately. Yellowknife evacuation orders Other residents have until 12 p.m. local time on Friday to leave the city of about 20,000. Today, Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau convened a meeting of the Incident Response Group to discuss the wildfires in the Northwest Territories. @CanadianForces personnel and aircraft are deployed to support emergency response efforts – and we’ll continue to be there to help. pic.twitter.com/zu0T82WRbf — Bill Blair (@BillBlair) August 17, 2023 Depending on smoke conditions, those leaving by car will be escorted through the active fire zone, officials said. Residents who can’t leave by road are being asked to register for evacuation flights. The City just issued an Evacuation Alert for some areas of the City; what does that mean? Please read these documents for more information. pic.twitter.com/3IxNB3DPR6 — City of Yellowknife (@OurYellowknife) August 16, 2023 Wildfires ravage Canada For some, it will be the second exodus in recent days. Evacuees from the remote communities of Hay River and Fort Smith were already being housed in Yellowknife, according to an update Tuesday. Canada is experiencing the worst wildfire season on record. More than 1,000 active fires are burning across the country of which more than 670 are out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. So far, 13.7 million hectares have burned, far exceeding the 1995 record of 7.1 million hectares. Read: Hawaii wildfire death toll rises to 93 as experts look into cause of ignition Tags Arctic Circle Canada wildfires Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre climate change Fort Smith Global Warming Northwest Terrirtories Yellowknife 0 Comments You might also like Here are 5 key takeaways from the COP28 climate summit How heat fueled extreme weather across the world in 2023 $9bn boost for nations worst-hit by climate change Top development banks at COP28 vow to up climate game