With some relief from smoke and heat, N.W.T. fire crews continue to fight wildfire by Hay River

Teams fighting a wildfire burning out of control near Hay River, N.W.T., have been facing another day of challenging weather, but shifting winds brought a small reprieve Tuesday.

The wildfire has doubled in size since the last assessment and is now at 1,782 hectares, NWT Fire said in an update around 4 p.m. Tuesday.

NWT Fire said there are 11 crews tackling the fire, with nearly 100 personnel dedicated to the effort in total.

Wind helped clear the smoke from the area earlier in the day, allowing air tankers to regularly hit the fire with water, and helicopters to drop buckets of water as well.

NWT Fire said crews have built control lines in an effort to "pin" the fire to wetland areas and limit its growth toward Highway 5.

The update stated that winds are expected to shift back toward the east Wednesday, bringing a return to smoky conditions in Hay River.

The focus is on preventing further damage to the Kt'odeeche First Nation reserve, and working to prevent the fire from spreading to the town of about 3,500 people.

NWT Fire said there has not yet been any damage reported in Hay River, and crews have been working to protect structures onthe Kt'odeeche First Nation to prevent further losses there.

Mike Westwick, a wildfire information officer for the territorial government, said Tuesday that a number of buildings in the community haven't been damaged and fire crews were doing their best to keep it that way.

A network outage that took down the territorial government's website and email posed another challenge on Tuesday afternoon. Apage where NWT Fire provides updates is affected by the outage, but Westwicksaid information isstill being posted to NWT Fire's Facebook page, and members of the public can also reach him for information at867-688-0958.

Meanwhile, hundreds of evacuees are waiting for news in Yellowknife, including Fred Martel, who says he lost his home on the reserve.

"Right now, to tell you the truth, I gotta see it for myself what the fire did to our community," he told CBC News.

Scattered rain Monday evening had little impact on the extremely dangerous conditions, Westwick said in an earlier interview, shortly after 7 a.m. Tuesday.

"There's no sugar-coating this," he told Hilary Bird, host of CBC's The Trailbreaker. "It's a very, very challenging situation."

By Tuesday, officials were still reporting the loss of about 15 buildings on the Kt'odeeche First Nation. Westwick said setting up sprinklers to prevent further damage was a priority.

However, unfavourable winds made that challenging Monday, with crews repeatedly falling back due to high smoke and low visibility.

'Still unsafe to return'

At 3 p.m., the Town of Hay River said it will still be several days before crews get the fire under control.

"It is still unsafe to return," the town stated in its update, which notes that "staff are actively working on a plan for residents to return safely if we receive positive news in the next few days."

Robert Bouchard, a town councillor and head of the town's emergency management operations, was onThe Trailbreakerjust before 8 a.m. Tuesday.

He said crews from the fire department and some contractors spent much of Monday watering down the banks of the Hay River, along Riverview Drive and in the community's north end, to prevent the fire from taking hold.

"We haven't had many major fires or major infrastructure fires at all, one our side," Bouchard said. "There were some additional fires on the Kt'odeeche side."

Bouchard said the streets of the community were "real quiet" Monday. Even those who stayed behind had "vehicles pointed in the right direction."

While evacuees have been ordered to go to Yellowknife, some in Hay River would be more inclined to travel to High Level, Alta., a five-to six-hour drive en route to Edmonton.

"Typically we would kind of go to them," Bouchard said, "but they have their own fires to fight, literally."

"It's just been a little bit chaotic because of the situation of 'Where can you go?'"