Canada's Yellowknife residents ordered to evacuate as wildfire threatens

Residents of Yellowknife, one of the largest cities in Canada's far north, were ordered to flee amid warnings that raging wildfires could reach it by the weekend.

"Unfortunately, our wildfire situation has taken another turn for the worse with a fire burning west of Yellowknife now representing a real threat to the city," Shane Thompson, the Northwest Territories' environment minister, told a news conference on Wednesday.

He ordered the city's nearly 20,000 residents to leave by noon Friday. There is only one highway open to the south.

Commercial and military flights were also being arranged.

The wildfire, as of late Wednesday, was within 17 kilometres of the regional capital.

"I want to stress that the city is not in immediate danger," Thompson said. But he added: "Without rain, it is possible (the fire) will reach the city outskirts by the weekend."

"You put yourself and others at risk if you choose to stay later," he said.

The city of Yellowknife declared an emergency earlier this week, which was soon expanded across the vast northern territory.

Several towns and Indigenous communities are already under evacuation orders, while firefighters in some areas were forced to pull back as strong winds stoked the flames.

More than 230 fires are currently burning in the region.

In what had already been declared the Northwest Territories' largest-ever evacuation, Yellowknife's evacuation now means half the population of the near-Arctic territory will soon be displaced.

Worst-ever wildfire season

Canada is enduring its worst-ever wildfire season, with more than 1,000 active fires burning across the country.

Western Canada is enduring a heatwave that saw 19 daily heat records broken on Tuesday and is fuelling hundreds of out-of-control wildfires.

In the Pacific province of British Columbia around 80 people were forced to shelter in place in a mountain guesthouse after their only way out was cut off by a rapidly expanding blaze.

Blazes have engulfed parts of nearly all 13 Canadian provinces and territories this year, forcing home evacuations, disrupting oil and gas production and drawing in federal as well as international firefighting resources.