Northern Alberta under fire ban as wildfires flare up, hot weather persists

Multiple communities in Alta. have now been evacuated because of wildfires and officials are warning several out-of-control fires will likely spread due to wind

The province put all of northern Alberta and parts of central Alberta under a fire ban on Thursday afternoon.

Forest areas around High Level, Fort McMurray, Peace River, Slave Lake, Grande Prairie, Lac La Biche, Edson, and Whitecourt that are part of the province’s Forest Protection Area were put under the fire ban at 2 p.m.

Outdoor wood fires on public and private land, and in designated and backyard firepits, are prohibited. Fire permits are also suspended under the ban.

The central Alberta counties of Parkland, Westlock, Smoky Lake, Athabasca and Lac La Biche, as well as the M.D. of Bonnyville, are also under a fire ban.

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Derrick Forsythe, an information officer for Alberta Wildfire, told CTV News Edmonton temperatures are expected to remain high while humidity levels will be at relatively low levels, leading the provincial agency to issue warnings.

“The entire boreal forest is either under a red flag watch or a red flag warning today because the conditions that we’re seeing are likely to contribute to extreme fire behavior over the next 24 hours,” he said on Thursday.

There are 48 wildfires burning in Alberta as of Thursday afternoon, up from 34 on Tuesday.

The province’s wildfire situation escalated late Wednesday and overnight into Thursday.

Westlock County

A wildfire burning in Hubert Lake Wildland Provincial Park has led officials in Westlock County on Thursday night to tell people in the area to leave immediately.

People are asked to travel on Highway 44 to Westlock’s Spirit Centre and to take important documents, medication, medical devices and pets with them.

Chateh

Early Thursday evening, people living in Chateh were ordered by the Dene Tha First Nation to leave the area because of an out-of-control wildfire burning west of the unincorporated community on the Hay Lake 209 reserve in the northwestern corner of Alberta.

People leaving Chateh are asked to go to the Bushe River Administration Office to register and for more information. The reserve is located 93 kilometres west of High Level and 658 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

Yellowhead County

Late Thursday afternoon, the province issued an evacuation order for Peers and areas east of the hamlet in Yellowhead County due to a nearby wildfire.

Earlier this week, 1,300 residents of Swan Hills were ordered to leave their homes ahead of an advancing, wind-whipped fire, estimated to have grown to 71 square kilometres in size. The town is 180 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

Red Earth East wildfire complex

Four northern communities were evacuated, starting with Chipewyan Lake at 5 p.m.

Then, between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., the province evacuated Red Earth Creek, Peerless Trout First Nation, and Loon River First Nation.

Near the lakes that share a name with these communities – Loon Lake, Trout Lake and Chipewyan Lake – is what authorities have named the Red Earth East wildfire complex, which consists of 10 different wildfires.

“I noticed the smoke in our area so it got me thinking that maybe we’re going to be evacuated because Peerless (Trout First Nation) was evacuated. So it just made sense that we were going to be next,” Loon River resident Matthew Letendre told CTV News Edmonton early Thursday morning at the Edmonton hotel his family was staying at.

“It just happened fast. We were driving to Slave (Lake) and then we passed that fire that was there. We actually saw the flames from that fire. It kind of hit us right there.”

Another Loon River resident, Tony Noskeyi, said, “The first bit (of the drive) was ashes landing on your vehicle, the wipers. We still smell like fire … because we haven’t slept. We drove all night.”

Video he took shows how close one wildfire was to Highway 88, the route his family took to Edmonton. As they drove further from their home, flames turned the black sky red.

“It was scary because you could see the flames right from the highway,” Noskeyi said.

Heavy equipment, airtankers and helicopters have been assigned to help the Red Earth East firefight.

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Alberta Wildfire is closely monitoring two other blazes, one near Mercoal that the agency has been watching for a week and one roughly 17 km southwest of Winefred and Grist lakes. The latter is 40-square kilometres and located about 20 kilometres from oil-and-gas infrastructure.

Other communities have been put on evacuation alert, meaning they must prepare to leave if the situation worsens.

Northeastern B.C.

The Peace River Regional District in northeastern British Columbia has issued an evacuation order for properties threatened by an out-of-control wildfire.

The province’s emergency information service said Thursday afternoon that the Kiskatinaw River fire south of Dawson Creek, measuring about 1,100 hectares, poses a threat to human life.

The evacuation order was issued for homes around Kelly Lake and areas north of Campbell Lake, west of Tent Lake, south of Twin Lakes, and east to the Alberta border.

The Peace River Regional District said people should evacuate to Dawson Creek.

The fire was burning close to the Pembina Steeprock gas processing facility and Highway 52 E, also known as the Heritage Highway. 

Argo Road Maintenance, B.C.’s road and bridge maintenance contractor for areas including Dawson Creek, said in a social media post on Thursday afternoon that some parts of the highway remained closed due to wildfires.

The fire was among 57 burning in the province on Thursday, including 32 that were out of control.

Most were clustered in the province’s northeast.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nicole Lampa, Evan Klippenstein and Miriam Valdes-Carletti, and The Canadian Press