Labrador woman recounts fleeing Yellowknife as wildfires threaten city
'I have never experienced anything like it, and I hope I don't again,' says Iona Strachan
A Labrador woman fleeing Yellowknife with her family says the forest fires threatening the city are unlike anything she's ever seen.
Yellowknife residents are leaving their homes behind, racing from dangerous wildfires that are expected to reach the outskirts of the city over the weekend. Local authorities have ordered people to leave by noon local time on Friday.
Iona Strachan, originally from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, left the city with her daughters, pets and friend before the evacuation order was implemented. The family is on the road in northern Alberta, hoping to reach either Calgary or Edmonton.
"When [my friend] Marie and I started chatting about possibly leaving, regardless of whether there was an evacuation order or not, the smoke rolled in really heavy that day. And it created a really eerie, orange looking sky. And the visibility was really, really poor," Strachan told CBC News from the road Thursday.
"At that point it was within 30 kilometres outside of the city. And then the next day, it had moved.… I remember being quite shocked at how fast it was moving."
Strachan said her family is nervous but holding up as they leave their home. They were hoping to go back to Labrador to be with family, she said, but demand is high and flights are too expensive. Strachan said she's experienced forest fires in Labrador and Yellowknife before but this situation is unlike anything she's ever seen.
"The fires were never as close to Yellowknife as it was this time," she said. "I have never experienced anything like it, and I hope I don't again."
Efforts to evacuate thousands of people have been complicated. Canada's major airlines are being accused of not doing enough to help people change flights or flee the region, and Yellowknife has only one highway into the community.
Territorial officials have also asked people to watch their speed when leaving Yellowknife to avoid collisions with wildlife.
Ahead of their next stop in Alberta, Strachan hopes everyone will make it out safely.
"We really thought it would be a week at most, and more like a vacation then an evacuation. But now here we are," she said.
"All I hope for is safe passage for everybody else."
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With files from On The Go
