Fort Good Hope fire: N.W.T. hopes for favourable wind conditions

As an evacuation center in Norman Wells, NT offer support to hundreds of people, a human caused wildfire is on the doorstep of their community. We have to take it one day at a time. Brings us comfort knowing our houses are are still standing and the power was not turned off. Officials say the fire has grown significantly and just over 100 of four good hopes 500 residents have stayed back to help in the firefight. The weather is in our favor a little bit. It's going to push the fire away from the community, so that's good news, but we're going to have a little bit of dry, hot weather coming, so it probably will increase the fire behavior somewhat. Flames broke out on Saturday less than 5 kilometers from the remote community, only accessible by boat or plane. It started getting bigger and then there was black smoke. Grab whatever they couldn't and just left some left without toothbrushes and, you know, a little small stuff like that. Everybody was kind of like caught off guard, but also really panicky. We're really glad that our community was able to pull together and, and, and, and make the evacuation successful. It's believed the fire started after a campfire was abandoned, prompting renewed warnings to the public to be responsible. The underlying environmental conditions, including the severe drought that we experienced in 2023, have not changed and there is still significant risk of wildfire starting and spreading in the NWT. More fire crews are headed to the region, and with no rain expected for a few days, officials say it's too early to say when residents will be able to return home. Nitu Garja, Global News, Vancouver.