Military airlifts hundreds to safety from fires in Northwest Territories

Michel Labine, a long-time resident of Fort Smith in Canada’s Northwest Territories, has often been the one fighting wildfires or helping evacuees in his hometown.

But last weekend, the 63-year-old found himself for the first time on the other side, forced to flee as a nearby forest fire inched closer and closer to his community.

The sky was smoky that Saturday morning but had turned pitch black by noon from the fires.

“Then it broke up a bit and there was just a red, amber sky,” Mr Labine told the…