'Within about 10 minutes we were into the fire,' says camper evacuated from Reid Lake

A section of the Ingraham Trail 56 kilometres from Yellowknife remains closedas fire crews battle a wildfire near the Reid Lake Territorial Park.

The park'scampground and Cameron Falls area are both closed. Campers and seasonal residents living east of kilometre 49 of the road are being asked to leave the area.

The Reid Lake campground was evacuated Thursday evening, with cabin owners in the area given notice to do the same.

By midnight, the fire was 100 hectares and growing and was being fought by three water bombers, two helicopters and two fire crews, according to the N.W.T.'s manager of fire operations. More resources were on the way Friday morning.

Shari Manyika was one of the campers forced to leave the campground. She and her husband had taken their five-year-old daughter on her first camping trip.

Around 5:30 p.m., thefamily ate dinner at a picnic table under a bright, sunny sky.About an hour later, Manyika woke up from a nap to a major change of scene.

"It kind of went quiet and there was a lot of airplane noise one after another after another."

'Within about 10 minutes we were into the fire'

Manyika says they could see the smoke, and the water bombers seemed to be coming closer and closer.

They took a walk and were told they would have to evacuate. Shortly after, parks officials came through the campsite informing everybody.

"Within five minutes we had everything just thrown in the car because we didn't know how bad it was or how close it was."

Manyika and her family were at the front of a convoy of vehicles.

"Within about 10 minutes we were into the fire," she says.

There were small campfire-sized patches of flame on the western side of the road. To the east, "it was so smoky we couldn't even see what was happening."

Manyika was impressed with the organization of officials, who had a list of campers and were checking off names to make sure everyone got out safely.

As for her daughter, "she was quite freaked out but she handled it very well. She was more disappointed that her first camping trip got cancelled."

Smoke coming from Snare

Smoke that began to reach Yellowknife Thursday night is coming from a controlled burn near the Snare Hydro Dam, Frank Lepine, manager of fire operations, told The Trailbreaker Friday morning.

Westerly winds provided good conditions for the burnout, which Lepine said should be completed sometime this weekend.

The goal is to protect apower line.

Thefire grew 50 times in size between Tuesday and Thursday last week, forcing crews to give up fighting it to instead focus on protecting resources.

• FROM JULY 7Fire near Snare hydro system out of control, no longer being fought
• FROM JULY 11N.W.T. fire crews plan burnout to protect airstrip at Snare hydro system

By Monday, that fire was just one kilometre from the airstrip at the hydro dam.

The Snare hydro system provides power to Yellowknife, Behchoko and Dettah. It includes four separate hydro plants as well as 150 kilometres of transmission lines.

A fire ban is nowin effect for allterritorial parks in the North Slave Region.

'Good progress' on Norman Wells fire

Crews are making "good progress" on a fire near Norman Wells, Lepine said, where roughly six fire crews are working.

Lepine's expecting a change in weather to help dampen the flames, but says crews will keep working on the fire until it's contained.

The risk to the community, he said, is low, thanks to a burn between the community and fire.

"As long as we contain the west end of the fire it shouldn't be an issue."

Fire activity back to normal

"We've been lucky so far," Lepine says of this year's fire season.

One month ago today, his department had clocked just 12 fires. Now there are 134, mostly lightning-caused.

"We're quickly catching up to our normal average."

The majority are in the hinterlands, far from communities or properties, and are fairly small. Only about half have prompted firefighting action.

And some were caused by people being careless.

This weekend, with hot and dry conditions in the forecast, Lepine suggests people avoid campfires altogether.