{"id":825963,"date":"2026-07-25T21:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T21:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/825963\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T21:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T21:34:11","slug":"house-burns-to-the-ground-in-fort-good-hope-n-w-t-as-temperatures-drop-rapidly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/825963\/","title":{"rendered":"House burns to the ground in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., as temperatures drop rapidly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

As temperatures dropped rapidly, a house fire knocked out power to four residences in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T.<\/p>\n

On Saturday morning, Tommy Kakfwi, former chief of Fort Good Hope, had been without power for about six hours. He said the abandoned house next door to his home burned to the ground.<\/p>\n

No one was living in the building at the time, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There was a young man that was doing some repairs to it. Now there’s nothing to repair. It just went right to the ground,” Kakfwi said.<\/p>\n

RCMP have not confirmed details of the fire. But Doug Prendergast, manager of communications for Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC), told CBC News that the house fire had resulted in the loss of power for four customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AnAn abandoned house in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., burned to the ground on Saturday morning, according to neighbours. The fire knocked out power to four residences, as the community faces a sharp temperature drop and heavy rainfall. (Submitted by Tommy Kakfwi)<\/p>\n

“A line crew is being dispatched to the community to make necessary repairs before power can be restored,” Prendergast stated in an email.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Kakfwi said he has started a fire in his woodstove to keep warm. But he is concerned about the contents of his freezer. “My ice cream\u2019s melted!”<\/p>\n

Temperatures fell rapidly, going from close to 30 C on Tuesday to 3 C on Saturday, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).<\/p>\n

On Friday, NTPC warned customers about potential snow and heavy rain on Saturday that could impact power lines and crews’ ability to respond. While Fort Good Hope didn’t receive snow, there are photos on social media of snow on the ground in Norman Wells, N.W.T.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"WayneWayne Kakfwi poses with snow in Norman Wells on Saturday. Heavy rain, winds and a drop in temperatures are forecast for much of the Sahtu and Beaufort Delta on the weekend. (Submitted by Wayne Kakfwi)<\/p>\n

On Saturday morning, ECCC issued an orange alert warning of heavy rain around Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake in the Sahtu, as well as Paulatuk in the Beaufort Delta.<\/p>\n

“People were not prepared for this,” Tommy Kakfwi said. “This is really unusual. I mean, one day we’re having plus 32 and then the temperature drops right down.”<\/p>\n

Even buildings that didn’t lose power were cold on Saturday, he said, adding he visited the health centre and the seniors’ home in Fort Good Hope, and both were cold.<\/p>\n

Heavy rain, flooding expected<\/p>\n

It might not have snowed, but ECCC is expecting between 50 and 80 millimetres of rain to fall by Sunday in Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope. The orange alert includes warnings that localized flooding is likely, with some roads potentially becoming impassable.<\/p>\n

The alert warns that damage to some critical infrastructure is possible and tells residents to avoid non-essential travel if they can, as well as to stay away from rivers, creeks and culverts that may overflow and become dangerous.<\/p>\n

Grand Chief Wilbert Kochon of the Sahtu Dene Council is currently travelling, but he said it’s been “crazy windy” in his community of Colville Lake. He said he hasn’t heard of temperature drops and the potential for snow at this point in a summer since the 1960s.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s good for the land,” Kochon said, even if it is unusual. Other parts of the territory continue to experience drought conditions that have led to high fire danger this summer, especially in the Dehcho Region.<\/p>\n

In the Beaufort Delta, ECCC is predicting between 75 and 100 millimetres of rain by the end of the weekend for Paulatuk.<\/p>\n

“This amount of rainfall in one storm is very rare for the community, and about three to four times the average rainfall for the entire month of July,\u201d the alert, released on Saturday morning, stated.<\/p>\n

Back in Fort Good Hope, Kakfwi said it took first responders about 40 minutes to get to the house fire. He said he’s not sure if the response was impacted by road conditions and weather.<\/p>\n

“We had a lot of wind and heavy rain, and we don’t have concrete. So the roads were pretty murky,” he said. “I mean, I’ve seen it snow on Aug. 10. But this is pretty unusual. But then, when you’re up here, anything is possible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-825963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}