How I Got Out of Yellowknife as the Wildfire Loomed

Smoke covers the sky over Highway 3, just outside of Yellowknife, on August 16. (Maggie Davies)

In the days leading up to the Yellowknife wildfire evacuation order, I found myself in a familiar place: struggling to discern how much danger we were all in.

Even as a major blaze loomed twenty kilometres from the city’s outskirts, near our only road out, and two other fires closed in from the north and east, I was never sure if I was taking the threat seriously enough or if I was overreacting.