Evacuation order ends, wildfire near Grande Prairie 90% contained

People living in the 50 homes that were evacuated due to a wildfire near Grande Prairie, Alta., have returned home.

Officials lifted an evacuation order Monday evening as firefighters have contained 90 per cent of a wildfire burning near the City of Grande Prairie.

The fire started Sunday afternoon near Range Road 64 and Township Road 710, about four kilometres southwest of the city of 65,000. Grande Prairie Regional Fire Service Chief Trevor Grant said the fire grew to 80 hectares in size.

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“We were having some pretty severe winds gusting to 60-65 kilometres an hour, with low relative humidity,” Grant told CTV News Edmonton on Monday.

Fifty homes south of the city had been evacuated. The province, via its emergency alert service, said just after 7 p.m. Monday residents can return to their homes.

Grant said there is no immediate risk to the city, while the County of Grande Prairie says no homes or structures have been destroyed.

Luke Shropshire, a contractor who was working on the roof of a house Sunday on Grande Prairie’s west end, said he could see flames from the wildfire “over the tops of trees.”

“They had to be very substantial to get up that high. so it was a little shocking,” Shropshire told CTV News Edmonton on Monday.

The county extended a fire ban to the nearby towns of Beaverlodge, Sexsmith and Wembley on Monday morning.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Miriam Valdes-Carletti