The active wildfires the national fire map lists near the city right now — each one's stage of control and size — with the official NWT Fire channels that matter in an evacuation.
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The boreal forest around Yellowknife burns every summer. This page shows the active wildfires the national fire map lists near the city — each one's stage of control and size — alongside the official channels that matter when a fire moves.
2026_NT_SS035-26 — 122 kilometres southeast of town (in the wider area), out of control. 17 more fires in range.
As of July 9 at 4:29 PM.
| Fire | Where | Stage of control | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026_NT_SS035-26 | 122 kilometres southeast | Out of control | 8 hectares |
| 2026_NT_ZF028-26 | 129 kilometres northwest | Out of control | 5 hectares |
| 2026_NT_SS017-26 | 180 kilometres southeast | Out of control | 1 hectare |
| 2026_NT_SS015-26 | 193 kilometres south | Under control | 4 hectares |
| 2026_NT_SS006-26 | 206 kilometres south | Being held | 3 hectares |
| 2026_NT_SS001-26 | 207 kilometres southwest | Under control | 5 hectares |
| 2026_NT_SS019-26 | 210 kilometres southwest | Out of control | 2,027 hectares |
| 2026_PC_2026WB9 | 222 kilometres south | Being held | 760 hectares |
| 2026_NT_SS004-26 | 224 kilometres south | Being held | 737 hectares |
| 2026_NT_SS020-26 | 227 kilometres south | Under control | 6 hectares |
| 2026_PC_2026WB15 | 234 kilometres south | Out of control | 0 hectares |
| 2026_PC_2026WB14 | 237 kilometres south | Out of control | 2,405 hectares |
| 2026_NT_ZF029-26 | 238 kilometres northwest | Out of control | 2,100 hectares |
| 2026_NT_SS018-26 | 241 kilometres south | Under control | 6 hectares |
| 2026_PC_2026WB4 | 243 kilometres south | Being held | 51,780 hectares |
| 2026_PC_2026WB3 | 243 kilometres south | Being held | 2 hectares |
| 2026_NT_SS012-26 | 244 kilometres southwest | Under control | 8 hectares |
| 2026_NT_ZF019-26 | 250 kilometres east | Out of control | 1,640 hectares |
“Being held” means the fire is not expected to grow past its current size in the conditions of the day; “under control” means it is not expected to spread at all. Both can still be smoking and worked on for weeks. A fire’s size and stage lag the ground, especially in its first hours.
This page is not an alert system
Most of the smoke that settles over Yellowknife drifts in from fires hundreds of kilometres off, not a fire at the edge of town. If the air is hazy but this page shows nothing close, the smoke and the nearest fire are usually two different stories — check the air-quality tool and Environment Canada for the haze.
In August 2023 the whole city, Ndilǫ, Dettah and the Ingraham Trail were ordered out as fire approached; about 19,000 people left down the single Highway 3 corridor and didn't return until September. The fire was held off. A quiet map today is not a promise — when an order comes it can come quickly, so follow the official alerts, don't wait for a fire to appear here.
Yellowknife is linked to the south by Highway 3 alone, across the Deh Cho Bridge. In a fire emergency that single corridor is the evacuation route, which is part of why orders here are issued early and cover a wide area.
Checked July 9 at 4:29 PM. Data: Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) / Natural Resources Canada, licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada. The map aggregates the provinces’ and territories’ fire agencies; new starts can take time to appear, so a quiet map is not a guarantee that nothing is burning.