Light showers, forecasted rain 'great news' for NWT firefighters, official says

Limited rainfall appeared in the South Slave region just before noon on Wednesday, and more rain is in the forecast, according to territorial fire information officer Mike Westwick.

In a written update released Wednesday at around 1:30 p.m., Westwick called that "great news."

Highs are expected to reach 20 C, and winds from the south, southwest and west of 10 to 15 kilometres per hour will gust up to 20 or 25 kilometres per hour, possibly pushing the fire even farther east.

An atmospheric inversion is holding wildfire smoke close to the ground, Westwick explained in an interview on the Trailbreaker Wednesday morning. 

That smoke is shielding the area from sunlight, keeping the temperature down and keeping the humidity up, he wrote in his update. 

'Visibility may not be ideal'

Westwick advised essential workers returning to Hay River along Highway 1 to use caution as they begin the gradual return to the community that was evacuated one month ago. The general public is now expected to follow on Sept. 17 if conditions hold. 

"Visibility may be not ideal," Westwick said, addressing those driving in Wednesday.

"Be cautious, stay safe and, you know, drive slower than you would normally if you're in smoke."

Conditions are similar in Yellowknife, Westwick said. 

Fire crews battling the blaze near Hay River faced another day of challenging conditions on Tuesday with temperatures reaching 27 C, brisk winds, and relative humidity at just 25 per cent.

Those conditions caused the fire to expand east past Birch Creek and forced the closure of Highway 5 for a period of time, Westwick said.

However, no structures were known to be lost, and the fire did not reach Fish Point.

Defences throughout the Hay River corridor held once again.

Crews successfully executed a planned burn to the east of Sandy Creek on Tuesday, which was pushed eastward by the winds and met the wildfire, Westwick said.

That burn sucked away oxygen from the wildfire and took away the path for the fire to turn west and threaten the K'atl'odeeche reserve and the Hay River Corridor. 

Crews and heavy equipment, meanwhile, have nearly finished key elements of securing the corridor and reserve by tightlining — digging away mid and deep forest fuels on the edge of the fire — and blacklining, or extinguishing everything in from the fire's edge to at least 100 feet, he said. 

Air tankers were active for part of the day on Tuesday, but poor visibility limited their activity in the afternoon, Westwick said.

Helicopters and crews, meanwhile, battled hotspots along Highway 1 and the Hay River corridor as they flared up, holding them back and preventing additional progression.  

On Wednesday, they will continue to hit targets in the Hay River corridor and along Highway 1, he said.

They will also continue to use information from nightly heat scans to seek and destroy hot spots. 

Crews meanwhile continue to run sprinklers and clear fuel from around structures throughout the Hay River corridor, the reserve and at Birth Creek, Westwick said.

Significant hot spots remain in Enterprise, and crews will be working with the community to address them.