Revised - The remote community of Old Crow began evacuating on Wednesday afternoon due to area wildfires.

“I’m just so amazed at how resilient our people are, but also how quickly we can pull together in times of urgent need,” Vuntut Gwitchin Chief Pauline Frost told the Star Thursday morning.

The evacuation order was issued by the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation government in Old Crow upon the recommendation of Yukon Wildland Fire Management.

“The reason we are evacuating is because in the next 24 hours, a cold front is moving into the region, so that’s going to bring with it really strong winds,” Haley Ritchie, a Yukon government fire information officer, told the Star Thursday, “and those strong winds are going to promote more aggressive fire behaviour.”

This is the second evacuation order in the territory this week. The village of Mayo had its approximately 450 residents taken out last Sunday.

Old Crow has about 250 residents.

The evacuation order states there is no immediate threat to the village, but says it is needed as a precaution due to changing weather conditions.

“Specifically, winds from the north and northeast are expected to significantly increase in the next two days,” the evacuation order reads.

Because the village is in a remote northern area of the territory and accessible only by air or by river, residents need to be flown out of town.

This is why people are being evacuated ahead of the anticipated incoming weather, Ritchie said.

There are currently 21 fires in the Old Crow region. Ritchie said Wildland Fire is mostly concerned about smoke in the area at the moment, but with the coming high winds, ember transfer could pose a threat to the community.

“It’s a little different from the evacuation in Mayo,” she said.

“In that case, there is one fire that is advancing very quickly towards the community.”

Two fires are of particular concern. The closest is a little under five kilometres away and the other is 12 kilometres away.

Heavy smoke has made reconnaissance flights over the fires difficult this week.

The 12-kilometre fire has Frost more worried. The closer one is in a swampy sort of area that shouldn’t allow for fast spread.

Wildland Fire is not actively fighting these fires, but is working to protect the town should embers start flying around.

“These are not the type of fires that allow for direct attack,” Ritchie said at a press conference on Thurs-day afternoon.

“Instead, our efforts are focused on structure protection, so things like sprinkler kits.”

Though the evacuation itself needed to happen quickly, Frost said her community has been preparing for this for nine days now.

Because of this preparation, she said, the evacuation went smoothly.

“Within a few hours, we had a plane on the ground and we had citizens starting to move out of here,” Frost told the Thursday afternoon press conference via Zoom.

Fire activity was subdued yesterday, but heavy smoke still hung over the village.

“The fire seems to be calm right now; no big flare-ups,” Frost said.

“So that’s a big relief for us right now.”

She is staying behind in Old Crow, about 1,000 kilometres north of Whitehorse, to help co-ordinate efforts there.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said.

Other local volunteers are also staying in the area to help with structure protection and firefighting efforts, should it come to that.

“We are now a small team here left in the community,” Frost said.

“We have a select few individuals that are here to manage the community, protect the safety of the community.”

A post by the Vuntut Gwitchin on social media says boats are ready in case a secondary evacuation route via the river becomes necessary.

Frost said she is really appreciative of these volunteers who have opted to stay and help.

As of Thursday afternoon, there were three Wildland Fire personnel in Old Crow.

“Minimal support on the ground right now,” she said.

She did say Wildland Fire told her an additional crew is just a phone call away if needed.

Evacuating residents were flown first to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, where they then boarded flights to Whitehorse.

Some people left Old Crow on Wednesday night, and others were evacuated on Thursday.

Premier Ranj Pillai and Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal were in Inuvik on Thursday to sign an oil and gas accord with the Inuvialuit Regional Corp., and, due to heavy smoke in the area, had to jump on one of the flights back to Whitehorse with the Old Crow evacuees.

The signing ceremony for the accord was cut short due to the potential for the smoke to ground flights. As space was available on the Old Crow evacuees’ flight, the premier and minister took the opportunity to leave when they could.

The Vuntut Gwitchin have an office in Whitehorse where members of their staff have set up to provide support to evacuees arriving in Whitehorse.

Once in Whitehorse, the Vuntut Gwitchin’s social media posts say there is enough space in the Canada Games Centre (CGC) to house all of Old Crow’s residents if need be.

An area in the centre had already been cordoned off to accommodate people coming from Mayo, though in the end, local hotels were able to take in all of those people.

Yukon government spoke-sperson Diana Dryburgh said local hotels are already full with Mayo evacuees, tourists and some military personnel in town for an exercise.

“Hotel rooms are pretty much maxed-out at this point,” she said.

According to Dryburgh, as of Thursday, all the evacuees from Old Crow had found accommodation either at Normandy Living seniors’ community off Range Road, or are being housed by the Kwanlin Dün First Nation.

The Kwanlin Dün are offering assistance to evacuees from both Mayo and Old Crow at their Potlatch House.

Dryburgh said they have started running a shuttle between the CGC, the Potlatch House and hotels daily between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Dryburgh also said pet care will be assumed by the Humane Society Yukon, which will likely be organizing temporary foster care for animals.

Many residents of Old Crow had expressed concern about their pets in posts online. Small dogs and cats that can fit under airplane seats are being allowed on the evacuation flights, but larger animals must be left behind.

To fit as many people on the flights as possible, evacuees were limited to taking 15 pounds of luggage.

The Vuntut Gwitchin government said in posts it’s taking down information on larger dogs that are left behind to make sure they are given water and food. They are also working with the humane society to secure a flight out for the dogs if need be.

The Yukon government is encouraging all evacuees from both Mayo and Old Crow to check in with Emergency Support Services at 867-332-4597 so they can get an accurate count and make sure people are getting all the support they need.