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Near disaster averted after unattended fires extinguished on popular Yellowknife trail

A picture of the remnants of an illegal campfire near the Frame Lake trail. A woman in the area has twice discovered people having illegal fires in the area.  (Emily Jean - image credit)
A picture of the remnants of an illegal campfire near the Frame Lake trail. A woman in the area has twice discovered people having illegal fires in the area. (Emily Jean - image credit)

A woman living near a popular Yellowknife trail said she's worried about fire safety in her neighbourhood after twice discovering human caused fires directly behind her home.

Both took place just off the Frame Lake trail, near downtown Yellowknife, an area where fires aren't permitted. They were discovered in the midst of hot, dry, weather that had nearly the entire territory at extreme risk of wildfires. The incident raises questions around deterring illegal fires and what the plan would be if one spread within the city limits.

Emily Jean
Emily Jean

Emily Jean lives in the area and was out for a walk on May 30 when she noticed smoke coming from a forested area off the trail just behind her house on Gitzel Street.

"As we turned our head back around to where the smoke was, an entire tree had ... you just see it go whoosh with flames," she said.

It was at that moment that three teenagers came running out of the forest and rode away on bikes, Jean said.

"We were shouting, 'What are you doing? You could seriously hurt somebody' ... as my partner was on the phone with the fire department," she said.

Nelson Johnson, Yellowknife's fire chief, confirmed the department responded to a fire on the trail on that date. The fire was extinguished quickly before it managed to spread, but Johnson said the situation could've gone very differently.

"They can be very dangerous," he said of fires spreading around Frame Lake. "To where there's property damage, even loss of life so it's very important we get notified as soon as possible."

Johnson said they still don't know for certain what the cause of the fire was.

Jean said it looked as though the youth who fled had a fire in a rock pit on top of a bed of pine needles directly underneath a dead tree, which caught on fire. She took photos and videos of the incident and posted them to Facebook.

Luke Carroll/CBC
Luke Carroll/CBC

The fire was a couple hundred feet from several apartments, townhouses and a large propane tank.

"It's scary because we're in a residential area, so this area right here is surrounded by apartment buildings with families, it's got townhouses with tons of families," she said.

The incident comes as the territory deals with numerous wildfires which have led to the evacuation of several communities. But if the situation had gotten more serious, it's unclear what the plan would be in Yellowknife.

The city's emergency management plan doesn't explicitly discuss wildfires, nor does it go into detail about city-wide evacuations. Rather, it sets out officials' and agencies' responsibilities, and the steps they should take in an emergency.

Yellowknife Mayor Rebecca Alty said in a previous interview with CBC News that the city's emergency plan doesn't get specific about wildfires because there are so many variables that could affect the response.

"The key thing for residents [to know] is that we would communicate what needs to happen," she said.

2nd incident of fire in the area

Jean said this is the second time in about two weeks that she's discovered someone having a fire in the same area behind her home. The first occurred in mid-May, as Hay River and Kátł'odeeche First Nation evacuees entered the city while fleeing a destructive wildfire.

Similarly, Jean was out for a walk when she found a fire pit on a bed of pine needles still burning, unattended. In this case, she and her children dumped water on the fire and made sure it was out.

"It was so hot and dry and I don't understand why someone would need to start a fire when it was already 20 something degrees and dry, and, like they weren't using it for cooking or anything like that," she said.

Luke Carroll/CBC
Luke Carroll/CBC

Jean said after witnessing such dangerous behaviour, she hopes to see more fire education in schools.

"You want to start a fire, show them where to appropriately start a fire, how to appropriately put it out because they literally lit this thing on a bed of pine needles beside a dry twig stick," she said.

Another option, she said, would be raising the fines for illegal fires as Nova Scotia did. The province recently increased fines from $237.50 to $25,000.

Richard McIntosh, a spokesperson for the City of Yellowknife, said breaking a fire ban or having an illegal fire within city limits could result in a $200 fine.

At territorial parks in the N.W.T. a first offence is a fine up to $500 or 30 days in jail, or both.

Any additional offences could lead to fines up to $1,000 and six months jail, or both.

Drew Williams, a spokesperson for the department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, said in an email there are no records of anyone being fined for breaking a fire ban. He said most violations are the result of a lack of awareness or a misunderstanding.