![]() ![]() On behalf of the Government of Yukon, I really want to let you know that you are not alone. “We know that the need to leave your home due to the risks associated with wildfire can be traumatic to all evacuees from Mayo and now Old Crow. 10 briefing included information from representatives of the territorial government, Wildland Fire Management and Yukon communities and First Nations that are either embattled by fire or rendering assistance to those who are. Smoke is blanketing communities severely enough that air quality warnings have been issued across much of its central and northern regions. There are 138 fires burning approximately 140,861 hectares in the territory. Many of them are receiving support in Whitehorse. With Old Crow and Mayo evacuated, more than 500 Yukoners have been ordered to leave their homes. Despite this, the facts and figures still indicate that one of the most challenging fire seasons in recent memory is still in full swing. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.The patter of heavy rain on the roof as officials from a variety of governments and agencies offered an update on the Yukon wildfire situation was greeted as a good sign. Now that officials say the Lahaina fire is 80% contained, perhaps we'll start to see that more than ash gray remains.Īssociated Press reporter Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu contributed to this report.Ĭopyright 2023 The Associated Press. Here and there, people were walking around, seeming to begin assessing the devastation. I could see burned ships out in the water, which made me ponder the force of ember-carrying winds.įrom above, I also didn't expect to see people. But this looked to me like a small wildland fire that exploded as it hit homes and businesses. I'm used to seeing something like a 300,000 acre-fire (121,400 hectare-fire) burning down a little town. What seemed to be a large majority of the fire was in the town itself. I observed that the area of fire out in the trees and brush seemed very small compared to the amount of the town that was burned. Were drivers actively trying to flee and couldn't? What happened to them? They weren't parked on the side of the road. One sight made me worried and provided a grim clue of the chaos of approaching fire: Charred vehicles in the road along Front Street. I couldn't see any active flames amid pockets of wispy smoke. There was a neighborhood near the water that was completely gone - not a single structure remained. ![]() King Kamehameha III Elementary School was decimated, a mess of collapsed steel. It was so one-dimensional that it was hard to imagine the scenic town that was once here. Street after street after street was nothing but rubble and foundation. ![]() What struck me the most was the lack of color of the scorched earth sandwiched between glistening blue ocean and deep green-brown mountains in the distance. I flew to Hawaii on Wednesday, and by Thursday morning, I was in a helicopter flying over Lahaina, a normally vibrant west Maui town that draws visitors from all over the world. ![]() LAHAINA, Hawaii – I've seen my share of a wildfire's destruction on a community, but in more than eight years of covering these disasters as a video and photojournalist, the scene over Hawaii was one of the worst.īased in Las Vegas, I'm used to being dispatched to wildfires in other places. ![]()
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