By Canadian Press

N.W.T. short on firefighters, equipment and information during 2023 wildfires: report

Aug 28, 2024 | 11:02 AM

YELLOWKNIFE — A new report says last year’s catastrophic wildfire season found the Northwest Territories short on firefighters, equipment, information and communications.

The third-party investigation is being released today by the territorial government.

It says the number of firefighters in the territory had been allowed to fall every year since 1991.

Some of the firefighters the N.W.T. did have were poorly trained, since the fires were already burning by the time training programs began.

The review found firefighting airplanes were in short supply and those that were available were often poorly used.

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The report adds that fire officials had inadequate information on the state of their forests and that the computer models used to predict fire behaviour weren’t up to the job.

The N.W.T. saw 34,000 square kilometres of forest burn in 2023 after two years of drought and high temperatures.

Nineteen communities were evacuated, including the territorial capital of Yellowknife.

The government says it has already increased its firefighting force, installed new weather stations and is updating its wildfire modelling technology.

The Canadian Press