17 new wildfires spark in Alberta over 24-hour period

After a week of thunderstorms throughout the province, northern Alberta has seen an uptick in wildfires since things cooled down earlier this month.

Alberta Wildfire said 17 new blazes have sparked since Thursday.

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There are 59 wildfires currently burning in the province’s forest protection area, 18 are considered out of control.

Evacuation orders for Peerless Lake, Trout Lake and Fort Chipewyan Lake are still in effect.

Saddle Hills County’s evacuation alert for the Blueberry Mountain area also remains in effect.

More than 1,500 firefighters from Alberta, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, the Canadian Forest Service, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, Australia, Costa Rica, Washington and the United States Forest Service are working on putting out blazes in the province.

A fire ban is still in effect for the High Level and Fort McMurray forest areas in northern Alberta. Under the ban, all outdoor wood fires, fireworks, barbeque charcoal briquettes and exploding targets are prohibited. You can see if you are in a fire ban area here.

Since Jan. 1, there have been 622 wildfires in Alberta, burning more than 676,000 hectares.