Thousands return to Yellowknife after wildfire evacuation order lifted

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YELLOWKNIFE — Thousands of Yellowknife residents returned home this week after a wildfire evacuation order was lifted.

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The nearby fire forced the city’s 20,000 residents to evacuate their homes about three weeks ago.

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The order for the Northwest Territories capital, which included the Dettah and N’Dilo First Nation communities, was downgraded to evacuation alert on Wednesday.

Officials say about 1,000 people, including 630 essential workers, were flown back to the state capital by the end of Wednesday and repatriation flights continued today.

At least 1,700 vehicles also returned to the city this week, but it is not known how many people were in each vehicle.

They say about 7,000 vehicles left the city after the evacuation order went into effect on Aug. 16.

There are still thousands of people from Hay River and Fort Smith who were displaced days before Yellowknife and cannot return due to wildfires.