Wildfire nears capital of Canada's Northwest Territories as thousands flee

A wildfire was moving closer the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories Friday as residents fled, rushing to beat a noon deadline to evacuate the city of 20,000.

Half of the population in the Northwest Territories has been already displaced by the fires, BBC News reported, citing a Friday federal update. 

"These fires are very active and very unpredictable," Harjit Sajjan, Canada's minister of emergency preparedness, said at a news conference Friday, according to the BBC. He said the government does not know the extent of the current damage.

Northwest winds combined with minimal rain were complicating efforts to slow the fire, which could reach the city limits by the weekend, emergency officials said. There was a chance of limited rain on Friday, but officials said it likely wouldn't be enough to stop the fire.

"We're heading into a critical couple of days," Shane Thompson, a government minister for the Territories, told a news conference.

Thousands of people have fled the fire, one of hundreds of wildfires raging in the territories, driving hundreds of kilometers (miles) to safety or waiting in long lines for emergency flights, as the worst fire season on record in Canada showed no signs of easing.

Ten planes left Yellowknife with 1,500 passengers on Thursday, said Jennifer Young, director of corporate affairs for the Northwest Territories' Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, adding that the agency hopes 22 flights would leave Friday with 1,800 more passengers.

 Airtankers flew missions overnight to keep the highway out of Yellowknife open, and authorities were guiding a long caravan of motorists through fire zones, officials said. Meanwhile, a network of fire guards, sprinklers and water cannons was being established to try to protect the city from the fire, which had moved to within 15 kilometers (9 miles).

Yellowknife Mayor Rebecca Alty said the fire didn't advance as much as expected on Thursday, but "it is still coming," and heavy smoke that is expected to move in increases the urgency of evacuating while it's still possible.

Alice Liske left Yellowknife by road with her six kids earlier this week because the air quality was so bad. She worried about how so many people would flee the city in such a short time.

"Not only that," she said, "but when we go back, what will be there for us?"

Canada has seen a record number of wildfires this year — contributing to choking smoke in parts of the U.S. — with more than 5,700 fires burning more than 137,000 square kilometers (53,000 square miles) from one end of Canada to the other, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

As of Friday morning, more than 1,000 wildfires were burning across the country, over half of them out of control. Hundreds of kilometers (miles) to the south of Yellowknife, residents were ordered to evacuate 2,400 properties in West Kelowna, British Columbia, and another 4,800 properties were on evacuation alert because of the threat from a wildfire burning just a few kilometers (miles) from the city.

The evacuation of Yellowknife was by far the largest this year, said Ken McMullen, president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs and fire chief in Red Deer, Alberta.

"It's one of those events where you need to get people out sooner rather than later" because of the danger the fire could block the only escape route even before reaching the community.

The evacuation order issued Wednesday night applied to Yellowknife and the neighboring First Nations communities of Ndilo and Dettah. Indigenous communities have been hit hard by the wildfires, which threaten important cultural activities such as hunting, fishing and gathering native plants.