July 11, 2026. | 1:30PM – Community Fire Update

Attention Residents Of Fort Simpson:

After a few days of rain and cool weather, things are looking much better in Fort Simpson. However, just because the danger is hidden, doesn’t mean it’s gone. It will take more than a little rain to deal with the remnants of a fire front stretching over 20 kilometers around the community. In aid of finding these remnants and extinguishing them, ECC has brought in drones capable of scanning for hotspots, and the wildland fire crews capable of going in and actioning them. With hot weather in the forecast, these remnants will reawaken and flare up, which is a significant public danger.

We can confirm that some structural protections have been removed from homes on the hill. This is for the simple reason that most large pockets of fuel next to them have burnt, and so if fire does come back, it will be smaller and along the ground. This is much more manageable for the firefighters to deal with. Equipment on places still considered “under threat” and portable water tanks have not been removed at this time.

Danger tree removal is underway in the affected areas. Trees with roots burnt by the fire may not fall right away, but as the days and weeks continue on, they will begin to fall. In an attempt to remove this potential for public injury or even death, professional tree fellers are assessing them to determine their danger level and removing them as necessary. Any trees removed are not done so lightly, but only in the interest of safety.

While it would be nice to bring people back and “get on with it”, the fact of the matter is by having more people in the community, you are putting more people in the way of these hazards. When you combine these much more frequent risks with a lack of healthcare or other essential services, you have a situation going from relatively under control, to a very chaotic situation. When an emergency is seems like it is ending is when people tend to get complacent, and that is when mistakes can happen. To that end, we all need to be sure to remain cautious and do things to safe and proper way.

Mahsi Cho, Thanks,

 -Village Incident Command