Ottawa, Aug 18 : Residents of Yellowknife, who waited in hours-long queues to board evacuations flights, have been turned away due to full capacity of the planes as a wildfire rages in the northern Canadian city, the media reported on Friday.
The people who were turned away on Thursday were asked by officials to try again on Friday or Saturday, reports the BBC.
As of Thursday, the fire was 15 km north-west of Yellowknife.It could reach the city’s outskirts by Saturday.
The blaze is one of nearly 240 wildfires raging through the Northwest Territories region, which declared a state of emergency late on Tuesday.
While the region is vast and sparsely populated, its capital of Yellowknife is home to some 20,000 people — all of whom have been ordered to get out of the city by noon on Friday.
On Thursday, a massive queue of people waiting to register for evacuation flights had formed outside a local high school.
But by afternoon, Amy Kennedy, the government’s director of communications, said no more than 400 more people could be flown out of Yellowknife.
“We understand that this is deeply frustrating for those who have been in line for several hours and who will need to line up again tomorrow,” the BBC quoted Kennedy as saying in a statement.
In a briefing on Thursday evening, officials said 22 planes were scheduled for Friday and 1,800 people should be able to get on those flights.
They said about 5,000 people need to leave Yellowknife by air.
Locals have accused the country’s two major airlines — Air Canada and WestJet — of increasing prices for flights out of the city as well as change fees for travellers with upcoming flights into Yellowknife.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had “touched base” with the city’s mayor to discuss the situation on the ground.
“I reaffirmed our government’s commitment to providing support both now and in the days and weeks ahead,” he wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).
About 46,000 people live in the Northwest Territories, and Canada’s military has been co-ordinating the largest airlift evacuation effort in the region’s history, the BBC reported.
The communities of Fort Smith, K’atl’odeeche First Nation, Hay River, Enterprise, and Jean Marie River are all also under evacuation orders.
Kakisa, a community of about 40 people some 130 km from Hay River, received an evacuation order on Thursday.
Canada is having its worst wildfire season on record, with nearly 1,100 active fires burning across the country currently.
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