Residents of N.W.T. village make emotional journey out of town due to wildfire

The southeast flank of the Fort Simpson wildfire, designated as FS016 by the government of the Northwest Territories, is seen Sunday, June 28, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - NWT Fire

FORT SIMPSON — A leader in Fort Simpson says it was a long and emotional journey fleeing a wildfire that is threatening the island community in the Northwest Territories.

Joshua Campbell says he and his family waited nearly three hours to get on a ferry leaving the island before they drove 700 kilometres east to Yellowknife.

“Everybody seems really tired,” he said Monday from the territory’s capital.

“My wife, our six-month-old baby and our two teenage sons were kind of in a convoy,” he said about the drive out. “Some people were camping at pullouts along the way.”

Campbell said he and fellow Fort Simpson councillors issued an evacuation order for the village of 1,300 people Sunday evening as a wildfire was about seven kilometres away. The territory issued an alert Friday advising residents to be prepared to leave.

He said he remembers seeing a lot of smoke just before he left.

He said a majority of Fort Simpson residents are now staying at a gymnasium-turned-evacuation-centre in Yellowknife.

Some elders have noted that cots are uncomfortable at the centre, Campbell added, but said the community has been welcoming.

He said he and many evacuees are thinking about the three people who died last week after a plane fighting separate wildfires in the territory crashed 50 kilometres from the village.

Police have said all were aboard the plane.

“It’s just been emotional,” Campbell said.

Forrest Tower, a wildfire information officer, says the wildfire affecting Fort Simpson had grown by Monday and that billowing smoke was making it harder to put it out.

“We won’t have an accurate perimeter likely even today just with how smoky it is but definitely you can say there’s growth,” Tower said.

Fort Simpson is one of five communities in N.W.T.’s Dehcho region.

On Monday morning, a second community in the region was also ordered out due to a wildfire.

The territory said in a social media post that residents of Wrigley need to leave and report to a nearby band office.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2026.

The Canadian Press