Wildfires Near Town

Active wildfires near Hay River right now from the national fire map — nearest first, with each fire's stage of control and size, and the official channels that matter in an evacuation.

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About these tools

Town Tools builds free, public tools for Hay River and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.

Fire

Where

Stage of control

Size

2026WB24

91 kilometres southeast

Being held

207 hectares

2026WB14

125 kilometres southeast

Out of control

2,405 hectares

2026WB17

130 kilometres southeast

Out of control

14,855 hectares

The official channels

NWT Alert — the territory's emergency alert systemWhere evacuation, fire and flood alerts are officially issued for the NWT. Also the free Alertable app on your phone — set it up before fire season, not during it.

NWT Fire — the territorial wildfire map and daily updatesThe Government of the Northwest Territories' own wildfire information: the live fire map, daily situation updates and the current fire danger.

Town of Hay RiverLocal emergency updates, evacuation-centre information and public-works notices during a fire.

Worth knowing

Why this matters here — August 2023

In August 2023 wildfires forced the whole of Hay River and the Kátł'odeeche First Nation to evacuate south down Highway 1, the second major evacuation in as many years after the 2022 flood. Fires came close to town and the highway itself was threatened. That is the memory this page is built for: knowing early which fires are near, how big, and whether they are holding — so the official evacuation call, when it comes, is not the first you have heard of it.

The road out can close — and smoke is a separate question

Hay River's link south is Highway 2 down to the Mackenzie Highway, then Highway 1 to Enterprise and on toward Alberta; a fire across that corridor can close the one road out even before it threatens town, so a fire that looks far on the map can still matter for getting away. This page tracks the fires themselves. Two companions answer the other two questions: “Is the Road Out Open?” reads the territory's own highway service for those stretches, and “Wildfire Smoke & Air” reads whether the air is safe to breathe today.

Where the fires get their names

Fires tagged “NT” are the Northwest Territories' own (the South Slave zone around Hay River is “SS”); “PC” fires are in Wood Buffalo National Park just to the south, run by Parks Canada; “AB” fires are across the Alberta line toward High Level, on the road down. All of them can send smoke or threaten the southern highway, which is why the map reaches past the territory's edge.