Alberta has a total of 49 active wildfires burning, and 19 of them are out of control as of Sunday evening. In the last week, central and southern Alberta saw heavy precipitation which helped keep fire activity low, said Alberta Wildfire information officer Josee St-Onge. “It gives a window of opportunity for firefighters to make progress. A lot of these fires are really large and they burn deeply into the ground, so this rain isn’t enough to necessarily extinguish them, but it slows down fire activity and allows us to make really good progress,” St-Onge said. She said it doesn’t take much for whatever moisture is on the ground to quickly evaporate but it does buy crews time before any fire danger continues to increase throughout the summer. Fifty-five fires are currently under control with three being held, according to the Alberta Wildfire dashboard. St-Onge said everything north of Slave Lake is drier and starting to warm up with Alberta Wildfire expecting fires to increase in those areas. “The situation is a lot better than a few weeks ago but we didn’t get the same widespread rain throughout the entire province ,” said St-Onge. Hot and dry weather still blankets the northern parts of Alberta with thunderstorms posing a risk to create more wildfires with lightning, leaving crews on the ground on “high alert,” St-Onge said. Crews have already been on the ground for several weeks with perimeters close to communities being well secured. “We’re pretty confident that the efforts that we’ve put in so far will hold, but these fires are active so residents may see smoke and other signs that they’re picking up,” St-Onge said. Alberta Wildfire says it’s common to see human caused wildfires ignite around a long weekend or holiday. With Canada Day around the corner, it’s reminding people to pay attention to fire bans wherever they’re heading and to make sure any campfires are fully extinguished and not to use any fireworks on Crown land. WIth from CTV News Edmonton’s Sean McClune
