A comprehensive fire ban has been enforced in certain areas of the Northwest Territories, where 145 fires are currently active as of Friday evening. This ban, implemented earlier this week, covers both public and private lands in the North and South Slave regions. Thomas Bentham, a senior communications adviser at Environment and Climate Change, mentioned that such regional fire restrictions have been a recurring practice every fire season since at least 2023, emphasizing the careful consideration involved in making this decision.
The ban was declared due to extreme fire risk and unusual weather conditions, aiming to prioritize community safety and prevent unnecessary allocation of resources to human-caused fires. Similarly, most territorial parks in the North and South Slave areas are also under a similar ban. Nevertheless, exemptions to the ban include the essential use of fire for Indigenous practices like cooking and hide tanning, as well as the permitted use of closed stoves and barbecues.
The North Slave and South Slave regions are depicted in the accompanying maps under the fire ban, illustrating the restricted areas.