YELLOWKNIFE, Canada: There are over 1000 fires approaching Yellowknife, the biggest city in Northwest Territories of Canada and 20,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate by Friday.
The fire is 17 kilometres away from the city and is expected to reach by weekend and there is one road that leads out from the city.
The fires have forced thousands of people to leave their homes and a big chunk of land is burned and charred for miles and miles. According to reports, the area burnt is larger than 42,000 square miles which is bigger than Virginia state in the United States.
Shane Thompson who holds the designation of Environment Minister in Northwest Territories stated during a press conference that the fire is posing a real threat to the city. He placed the orders for evacuation and the city of 20,000 has been advised to leave by Friday noon. Only one highway is leading out towards the south while flights are also arranged for carrying out the evacuation process.
Thompson stated that if there is no rain, the fire can reach the city by the weekend and the risk factor will be a lot more if you choose to stay longer putting yourself and others in danger.
The firefighters were pulled back from different areas as Northwest territories have been declared under fire emergency earlier this week.
The evacuation is being done with exact precision to save the indigenous communities as strong winds have expanded the fire to large areas.
It is believed more than half the population of the Northwest Territories in the Arctic will soon be displaced as the fire rages on.
Military helicopters are deployed to carry out the evacuation of the communities that have their access road all burned up by the forest fires.
Social media and Canadian TV are showing videos and images of an orange haze over the region beside blackened and burned-up land.
The fire season has nearly 170,000 fleeing from the homes and some have done that twice. There have been four deaths reported and over 1100 fires are burning across the country with over 230 in Northwest Territories.
