2023-08-18 17:28:36
Yellowknife, one of the largest cities in the north of the country, will fall prey to flames in hours. Dozens of people try to escape but the routes are congested and the planes are full.
The approximately 20,000 inhabitants of Yellowknife, one of the main cities in the extreme north of Canada, embark this Friday on a race against time to evacuate their homesthreatened by a large forest fire.
The region’s authorities, who issued the evacuation order on Wednesday night and gave residents until noon on Friday (3 in the afternoon Argentine time) to leave, they estimate that around 1,500 residents have already left the area by air, while hundreds more fled using the only route that connects the northern communities with Alberta, a neighboring province located to the south.
On Friday twice as many flights were arranged than the day before to allow the residents of the north who still remain there to evacuate.
People line up at the airport to be evacuated. Photo: Reuters
But the route was this Friday a long caravan of vehicles who was advancing at the pace of a man fueling the fear of the authorities that the fire would cut off the highway before they all get through.
At airports, there were lines of three hours to board a plane and hundreds of passengers were turned away because the flights are overcrowded.
The authorities, however, reassured the population on Thursday night, saying at a press conference that the flights would continue beyond the announced deadline.
Yellowknife residents crowd a school to sign up to be evacuated. Photo: Reuters
“We will carry on Until we can get everyone out of Yellowknifesaid Jennifer Young of the Northwest Territories Emergency Services.
a remote territory
This mass evacuation in such remote territory is “particularly difficult”Mike Westwick of the regional fire department explained earlier this week.
Closest Evacuation Center to Yellowknife is 1,150 kilometers away in Albertawhere several reception centers were built.
The fire, located about 15 kilometers from the urban area of Yellowknife, could reach the city between Friday night and the weekend, authorities warned, mainly because the winds would not favor the work of firefighters.
An evacuee, Jamie Fradsham, with her 9-month-old daughter, Ivy Droesse, upon arrival in Alberta. Photo: Reuters
“I’m really anxious and scared, I’m sensitive,” Angela Canning told the Associated Press after packing her trailer home, along with her two dogs, with her belongings.
“I don’t know what I’m going to come home to or if I’m going to come home. There are so many unknowns,” he lamented.
AFP y AP
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