0llie, thank you so much forjoining us, especially under these circumstances. Now, i understand youve been able to flee these fires. Just bring us up to date in terms of what took place, what happened and how youre coping where are you now . Yeah, so i am now in a small village called fort simpson, which is about 630 kilometres west of yellowknife. It probably sounds like a huge distance it really isnt in Northwest Territories terms. This place is twice the size of france, its got 16,000 people in it, so vast scales that were talking about. This is essentially three communities to the left of yellowknife. And you can just hear a float plane into the distance, by the way. This is the Mackenzie River behind me. Yellowknife under a full Evacuation Order, as you probably heard, yesterday. We came out here a day before because, to be frank, the writing has been on the wall for days that that wildfire was going to pose a grave threat. What were you seeing that led you to think, hey, i better
pose a grave threat. what were you seeing that led you to think, hey, i better get out of here even a day before the official evacuation order takes place? well, i m the editor of cabin radio, a website covering the northwest territories and i ll shout over the flood plane in the background here we did an interview with a gentleman named john vallant who spent seven years studying wildfires and john vaillant described to me how authorities in fort mcmurray in 2016 underestimated the strength of 21st century wildfire. he said he saw a lot of echoes in yellowknife and i have to be frank with you, it s one of those things as a journalist, i got five minutes into that interview and thought to myself, what am i still doing here? just walk us through the situation in the area in general because, of course, yellowknife is not the only area evacuated several other communities have had to flee. there are any different blazes there. give us a picture of what is