More than 40 wildfires started over the long weekend: Alberta Wildfire

A forest is scorched after the Kiskatinaw River wildfire burned through an area along the B.C.-Alberta border. (B.C. Wildfire Service)

Alberta Wildfire says more than 40 wildfires started in Alberta over the long weekend but the vast majority of them have been extinguished.

Derrick Forsythe with Alberta Wildfire said there were 43 new wildfires detected between Aug. 2 and Aug. 5, most of which were in the Lac La Biche and Slave Lake areas.

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Out of the 43 blazes, three are still considered out of control, one is being held, seven are under control and 32 have been extinguished.

Forsythe chalks up the success to standard operational practices.

“We’ll have ground units and aerial firefighting resources we deploy to new starts, depending on what the access looks like,” he explained. “If we can get to it by road, we’ll get to it by road. If we can’t, our initial attack crews of three or four people will be helicoptered in.”

Air tankers will also deploy either water with foam to help concentrate the drops or retardant to help slow the growth of the fire until crews can get to it.

“Our goal is to have wildfires extinguished by 10 a.m. the day after they’re discovered,” said Forsythe, adding that Alberta Wildfire has had a 90 per cent success rate over the last five years by that metric.

“It’s easy to put out a 0.1-hectare fire, but it’s much harder if that fire has grown five or 10 hectares,” said Forsythe. “We really focus on getting there early and hitting those new starts hard to allow us the best chance to get them out before they can do any real damage.”

Twenty of the fires were started by lightning and four were human-caused. The other 19 are still being investigated.

There are currently 64 wildfires burning across the province’s forest protection area, 16 are classified as out of control.

Fire advisories are in place for the Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie and Slave Lake forest areas and parts of the Lac La Biche forest area.

Under the advisory, fire permits are only considered on a case-by-case basis. Safe campfires are still allowed.

Parts of the Lac La Biche forest area are under a fire restriction, banning all outdoor wood fires on public lands. Safe wood campfires on private land, including provincial campgrounds with a designated fire ring, are still permitted.