The last week or ten days much has been in the news about Yellowknife which is the capital of the Northwest Territories. The population of Yellowknife was evacuated. That's 20000 people who had to take a two lane highway. There were fires along the way and it's such a long distance that you make sure that you fill the gas tank at the few gas stations.
These people made it to various places in Alberta where accommodation was available. 3000 came to my home town of Red Deer . Finding accommodation was difficult as other areas had been evacuated from other fires.
Hay River has also been evacuated.
Now these places are a very long way from me.
Driving to Yellowknife from Red Deer is 1602 km ( 995 mi). Driving time is 16 1/2 hours. The direct line from Red Deer to Hay River is 958 km (595 mi). It's 772 miles by car.
So you see that these areas are along way away.
However, there are fires between Red Deer and those fires.
Now in the cities we have to worry about fires in the urban forest. This city is heavily treed and wildfire is a definite probability.
We've been fortunate to not have too much smoke.
So I am safe but quite worried as to what will happen as the fire season continues.
In the 1960's I visited both Yellowknife and Hay River a number of times. I drove to Hay river twice and flew into Yellowknife many times.
