Wildfire smoke has been blasting much of the N.W.T. lately, with air quality advisories in nearly every community Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, much of the territory is also coping with record-breaking heat.

At last measurement, the fire had burned about 14,000 hectares and remains within 10 kilometres of Tulita, but is on the far side of the Mackenzie River.

Shane Thompson, the N.W.T.'s minister of Environment and Climate Change as well as Municipal and Community Affairs, gave an update on the out-of-control wildfire burning near Hay River and the Kátł'odeeche First Nation since Sunday.

Friday saw the N.W.T.'s first two reported wildfires of the season. Both were near Fort Smith. The first forest fire of the season 30 kilometres northeast of Fort Smith. They called the fire a holdover fire, which means it stayed active under snow over the winter.