About four millimeters of rain and a temperature that has dropped to 17ºC – usual for August in the Canadian Great North – have timidly eased the situation in Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, whose 20,000 inhabitants were evacuated last week. The out-of-control fire remains active 15 kilometers from what is also known as the diamond capital of Canada, which is now more than ever a ghost town, with only the presence of numerous fire brigades and the reinforcement of 400 members of the army In the streets, not a soul, but some gray bone roaming around, as several television cameras have captured.
No one remembers a year as extreme nor are there records as catastrophic as the current one in Canada, in which more than 5,700 fires have already been recorded. The authorities do not yet know whether they will be able to prevent the flames from reaching Yellowknife on the shores of Great Slave Lake, which occupies an area slightly smaller than that of Catalonia, or whether the houses of the enclave, which is barely a century old ‘history that has experienced the fevers of oil, gas and, now, diamonds (three mines close to the city are operational) will end up in ashes, like the next Enterprise (in the photo accompanying the text).
Tungsten, Uranium City, Port Radium… The settlements and history of the Canadian Northwest Territories are closely linked to the exploitation of mineral and energy resources. It is the same case with Yellowknife, which, on the other hand, owes its name to a native tribe, the Dene, who used a kind of ocher knives. Without promises of lucrative jobs, there is little reason for Canadians from the seven southern provinces to settle in places with temperatures that can drop to -40º C in winter.
Yellowknife is a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Vancouver, the big city on the west coast of British Columbia, another province under fire this torrid summer that is burning hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of forest. of conifers By car, it’s about 1,500 kilometers from Edmonton, the country’s major oil capital, or about 19 hours of driving with the lure of seeing herds of mountain bison.
Canada is home to 9% of the planet’s forests and has always had a realistic and particular policy of fighting forest fires. To begin with, each province or territory has its own powers in this area. But none was prepared for this summer, when budget cuts have left dwindling resources to deal with climate change wreaking unsuspected havoc. The summer has had episodes of unusual heat and the forests are dry, despite being in one of the most extensive lake areas in the world.
The distances in the Canadian Great North are so vast and the roads so scarce that fires simply cannot be fought. It is the territory of free fires, where nature decides its fate. Usually the forest burns due to the action of lightning – although there are also fires caused – and is extinguished when rain, rivers and lakes form impassable barriers. Firefighters, of course, try to control those closest to urban centers, such as Yellowknife, where they have created large defenses, basically by cutting down trees to trace a perimeter of gigantic firebreaks.
Highway 3, which dies in Yellowknife, is one of two that allow driving from the US border into the Great North. The other is the one that winds and crosses the territory of the Yukon and is called the Dempster Highway. The Mackenzie River originates in the waters of Great Slave Lake, where Yellowknife is based, and the wide navigable course runs almost 2,000 kilometers before emptying into the Arctic. It’s a fishing paradise, one of the big draws that draws tourists to the Canadian Great North every year. The others are adventures such as walking through the wilderness, visiting abandoned whaling stations such as Herschel Island, animal watching and contact with Eskimo culture in towns such as Inuvik, where the Dempster Highway ends.
