Yellowhead County evacuation order expanded, Alberta seeking support as 28 wildfires spark within 24 hours

Sixteen firefighters fighting a wildfire in northern Alberta are safe after they were trapped by the blaze on Thursday night. CTV News Edmonton's Nav Sangha rep

With high winds and hot temperatures throughout Alberta, the minister of forestry and parks said the province is seeking additional wildfire support through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

“We had 28 new (fire) starts just in a 24-hour period,” said Minister Todd Loewen. “That kind of intensity has definitely brought things to a maximum of our capacity.”

Details on when more supports would arrive, how many and from where, were not available.

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As of 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, there were 51 wildfires burning in Alberta, 28 were deemed out of control, according to the Alberta Wildfire dashboard.

The province has seen 481 wildfires this year, burning just over 290,000 hectares.

Over 700,000 hectares of land in Alberta burned in 2024.

More than 800 evacuated from Yellowhead County

Mayor of Yellowhead County Wade Williams said around 800 people evacuated the community following Thursday night’s evacuation order due to an out of control wildfire burning nearby.

The fire started that afternoon about a kilometre south of the hamlet of Peers within Yellowhead County.

In 2023, Yellowhead County had 11 evacuations, including the town of Edson, said Williams.

“People are still very nervous of fires anytime they start to happen,” he said. “There’s a lot of anxiety when people smell smoke.”

As of Friday afternoon, the fire near Peers had reached 2.85 square kilometres and was out of control.

Friday night, officials said the fire was pushing toward the northwest. The evacuation zone was expanded to include 1.6 kilometres west of Highway 32 and north to the McLeod River.

The communities of Robb and Mercoal were put under a mandatory evacuation order due to another out-of-control fire burning nearby.

The mayor said they have a couple of large helicopters, four small helicopters and ground crews working on the fire. The county, in conjunction with the province, is in the process of putting sprinkler systems on homes in the immediate area.

Firefighters temporarily stranded in Chipewyan Lake

Two firefighting crews in northern Alberta temporarily lost contact with their command centre Thursday evening after a wildfire breached the community they were working to protect.

The firefighters in Chipewyan Lake – four municipal firefighters and four firefighters specialized in preventing wildfire spread in urban settings – lost radio contact around 8:40 p.m., according to Loewen and the Municipal District of Opportunity.

• Wildfire breaches Chipewyan Lake, temporarily stranding firefighters

Authorities knew they were safe; one team sheltered at the community’s fire station, while the other sheltered in the school, which had been designated the emergency shelter.

“We don’t want to lose communication with anybody,” said Loewen in an interview Friday. “Losing that communication was worrisome, but we were able to regain it quickly thereafter, and we know they had a safe place to go.”

Attempts to use night-vision helicopters failed because of the heavy smoke, so at midnight, officials were still working on an extraction plan.

Eventually, it was determined the road out of the community was safe and the stranded teams drove out, assisted by a 20-person forestry crew who cleared felled trees.

James Gault, vice president of AUPE for the Northeast region, said the union is proud of the work its firefighting-members do every day.

“It goes to show the dangers and the everyday stress they go through and the value they provide to Albertans,” said Gault in an interview Friday.

He added that there have been recruitment and retention issues when it comes to firefighting in Alberta.

“The depth of knowledge you get from experience is needed in these communities because you want people who have faced these issues before and know exactly how to deal with them,” said Gault. “If we’re losing them, we are going to suffer in the long run.”

More firefighters are expected following the end of spring term in universities throughout the province.

The fire near Chipewyan Lake is one of eight fires burning out of control in the area. Alberta Wildfire is referring to this grouping of fires as the Red Earth East Complex. The complex was 368.8 square kilometres in size on Friday.

Other wildfires of note

Edith Lake

• A wildfire about seven kilometres north of Swan Hills near Edith Lake is burning out of control and is approximately 175.7 hectares in size.
• About 1,300 residents of Swan Hills were ordered to leave their homes ahead of high-speed winds blowing the fire toward the town. Swan Hills is about 180 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

Peerless Trout First Nation

• A five square kilometre-sized wildfire is burning out of control 11 kilometres from Trout Lake. The First Nation was given a notice to evacuate on Wednesday.

Caribou Lake

• A wind-whipped fire 20 kilometres southeast of Conklin grew significantly over the last 24 hours. It is approximately 680 square kilometres in size. The hamlet has been placed under a wildfire alert.

Rainbow Lake

• An evacuation order has been issued for the community of Chateh in northwest Alberta due to an out-of-control wildfire 31 kilometres east of the town of Rainbow Lake. It is estimated to be about 100 square kilometres in size.

Whitefish Lake First Nation

• A blaze three kilometres north of Whitefish Lake First Nation is classified as out of control and is about 16 square kilometres in size.
• Alberta Wildfire says the fire is currently burning away from the community and that an evacuation advisory is in place if conditions escalate.

Visit Alberta Emergency Alerts for the latest information on evacuations and advisories.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nav Sangha and CTV National