Region Archives: Canada West

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The Stoddart Creek wildfire has grown by 500 hectares in the past 24 hours to approximately 22,067 hectares. According to the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS), 121 firefighters are responding to the Stoddart Creek wildfire during the day,  and 48 are responding overnight. On Wednesday, crews completed a 300-hectare planned ignition operation to remove unburned fuels south of The Shepherd’s Inn off Highway 97. BCWS says the ignition secured the area, which had previously been inaccessible and was threatening infrastructure. Now crews can work on the fire’s edge from the road. On Thursday, crews will continue to utilize planned ignition operations where required as conditions allow.

Hannah Swift

Crews battling a 215-square-kilometre wildfire near Fort St. John in northeastern British Columbia got some unexpected help in the fight. An information officer with the B.C. Wildfire Service says the amount of smoke in the area was enough to provide a buffer from the sun’s heat, which had been expected to cause problems for crews at the Stoddart Creek blaze and others nearby. Hannah Swift said there was enough of a break in the smoke to allow crews to launch helicopters to fight the fire about 25 kilometres from Fort St. John. She said the blaze is not believed to have grown substantially in the last 24 hours. …The forecast suggests possible rain over the weekend, although Swift said there’s also the potential for thunderstorms, which could bring lightning.

An out-of-control wildfire that destroyed 20 homes in a northern Alberta Indigenous community has burned its way into Wood Buffalo National Park. The Paskwa Fire has burned 60,955 hectares of land so far. It is now about a kilometre into the park’s boundary on the southwest side. Ninety-five firefighters, eight helicopters and heavy equipment are all working to contain the fire, Alberta Wildfire said. The province also has air tankers available to drop water on the fire if it’s needed. Though the fire is still some distance from the N.W.T. border, N.W.T. Fire said Wednesday evening that crews were working to protect “values at risk” in the park. …Meanwhile, Alberta Wildfire said shifting winds are expected to bring smoke rolling through Garden River. The community is on an evacuation alert.

ALBERTA — Drayton Valley Mayor Nancy Dodds said it was emotional to return home nearly two weeks after an out-of-control wildfire forced residents to flee, but thousands elsewhere remain on edge as scores of fires continue to rage across much of the West. Fire Chief Tom Thomson said while the fire risk has eased significantly, people should take precautions. “There are still extremely hazardous areas out in the county area. We call it the burn area or the black area. There are concerns about falling trees, there are concerns about ash pits,” he said. More than 11,900 people in Alberta remain forced from their homes. Ninety-one active wildfires were burning in the province, with 27 listed as out of control as of Wednesday afternoon. …Hotter and drier temperatures are in the forecast and there’s a fire ban for nearly the entire province. There were also 25 active wildfires in Saskatchewan as of Wednesday afternoon.

Alberta’s unprecedented wildfire crisis threatens to drag on through the summer months. As of Wednesday afternoon, 91 wildfires are burning inside Alberta’s forest protection areas, and 27 are classified as out of control, Alberta Wildfire information unit manager Christie Tucker said. Firefighters are bracing for a long, gruelling season, and Tucker said Alberta has enlisted the help of nearly 1,000 out-of-province firefighters from across Canada and the U.S. so far. …But Alberta Wildfire information officer Josee St-Onge said Wednesday that the number of fires means it will be “a long battle” to stop them. “Given the amount of fire we’re currently seeing on the landscape, it will be months before all these fires are brought under control, unless we get a significant shift in the weather that brings a lot of moisture,” she said. …Hot, dry and windy conditions are expected to continue throughout Western Canada, potentially creating more intense and unpredictable fires

FORT ST. JOHN, BC — Patrick Patterson quickly packed his suitcase after smoke settled over Fort St. John, a city that was placed under evacuation alert. …He said the last time the city of 21,000 experienced a wildfire threat to this magnitude was in 2016, when the Fort McMurray fire led to the evacuation of more than 90,000 people and destroyed 2,930 buildings. …He said the initial panic from Monday calmed by Tuesday, as winds died down and skies became clearer. However, the city remains under evacuation alert. The alert was trigged by the Stoddart Creek wildfire, which is an estimated 23,500 hectares as of Tuesday and suspected to be human-caused. As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 60 active fires in B.C., of which 15 are out of control. According to the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness, there were approximately 5,100 people across B.C. under an evacuation order as of Monday afternoon, and about 33,000 under an alert.

Hot and dry conditions have worsened wildfires throughout Western Canada, forcing thousands from their homes and leaving many regions under a layer of smoke. “Prayers are needed for rain,” Chief Wilfred Hooka-Nooza of Dene Tha First Nation in northwestern Alberta said Tuesday. Hundreds of people were forced earlier this week to flee Chateh, a community that is part of the First Nation, as a blaze approached. …An email was sent to all Government of Alberta employees Tuesday asking anyone with firefighting experience to volunteer. Sixty additional firefighters from Ontario also arrived in the province. …An evacuation order for Drayton Valley, where some people lost their homes as a wildfire tore through nearly two weeks ago, was partially lifted. …The weather has not been co-operative in battling blazes in northern British Columbia, and officials there said an ongoing heat wave is increasing the fire risk further south.

The Alberta government is asking its public employees to volunteer to help the firefighting effort as wildfires displace thousands across the province. Public service commissioner Tim Grant put out a call for employees who may have previous firefighting experience or training on Tuesday. Grant also put a call out for employees who may have experience in wildfire support roles or have served as part of an incident management team in the memo. …“We are grateful for all the Alberta public service staff who have been working tirelessly to keep Albertans safe.” Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen told reporters at a wildfire update on Tuesday that the province needs all the help it can get to fight the widespread wildfires. We’re pulling out all the stops that we can to try to get as many experienced people on the front lines as we can,” Loewen said.

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Hundreds of firefighters are taking advantage of a weather break to prepare for a potential worsening of conditions near the wildfire-threatened city of Fort St. John in northeastern British Columbia, as the community of 21,000 remains on evacuation alert. Hannah Swift, an information officer with the BC Wildfire Service, said 400 fire personnel, 22 pieces of heavy equipment and 22 helicopters were in the vicinity of four blazes close to the city. “We have more resources arriving by the hour,” she told a news briefing. She said a break in the weather, in which winds dropped and shifted direction, had been “a bit of a reprieve” for Fort St. John and crews had used the opportunity to reassess and position themselves ahead of a warm front. …The BC Wildfire Services said parts of British Columbia are already in the midst of their “core fire season,” months ahead of schedule.

Additional coverage in CBC News: Fort St. John residents watch and wait as wildfires burn near city

British Columbia wildfire officials say the intense and early wildfire onset is posing a “significant and extreme fire” risk in the north that will likely intensify across the south of the province in the coming days. Starting Thursday, a provincewide open-burning ban will begin, and a campfire ban will apply to the Prince George Fire Region, the B.C. Wildfire Service announced Tuesday. …As the high-pressure ridge moves and pushes higher temperatures further south, the risk will increase across the southwest coast and in the southeast. “I wouldn’t be surprised if alerts and orders shift out of the north and into the rest of the province,” said Chapman. Forests Minister Bruce Ralston recognized the challenges of evacuation orders and urged British Columbians to follow the fire bans and to be careful on the upcoming May long weekend.

As temperatures remain high and conditions dry heading into the May long weekend, a provincial fire ban has been put in place for large parts of northern Saskatchewan. Citing the “hot, dry conditions and an extreme fire risk that covers most of northern Saskatchewan,” the provincial government announced that the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency had issued a provincial fire ban, effective immediately, for Crown lands, provincial parks and the Northern Saskatchewan Administration District. “While many people are looking forward to the long weekend, the decision to implement a fire ban is necessary in order to protect lives, communities, major infrastructure and resources from wildfire,” SPSA president and fire commissioner Marlo Pritchard said in a statement. …A convoy of vehicles was allowed to leave a northern Saskatchewan village early Tuesday morning after Buffalo Narrows issued a mandatory evacuation order. The village had issued a state of emergency on Monday.

Additional coverage in CTV News Saskatoon, by Josh Lynn: ‘This is a big fire’: Raging Sask. wildfire forces further evacuations

Minister of Forests Bruce Ralston and BCWS’s Cliff Chapman provide an update on the wildfire outlook for B.C.

https://youtu.be/-EICJZtHmIg

Advancing wildfires in northeastern B.C. have more than 20,000 people prepared to leave their homes at a moment’s notice. The entire municipality of Fort St. John has been placed on evacuation alert due to advancing wildfires in the area. An alert means that people do not need to leave their homes but should be prepared to do so at a moment’s notice. The alert was issued at 2:30 p.m. Pacific due to the Stoddart Creek Wildfire, which is classified as out of control and is estimated to cover 180 square kilometres (18,000 hectares) as of noon Monday. It is one of two large fires burning northwest of Fort St. John, along with the Red Creek fire. Highway 97 has also been closed 27 kilometres north of the city due to the blaze, with fire information officer Hannah Swift saying that the Stoddart Creek fire is burning on either side of the road.

LAKELAND, Alberta – Going into a forecasted week of above seasonal temperatures, local and provincial fire officials are urging extreme caution in extremely hazardous conditions. Along with the provincial fire ban, officials are urging area residents to use extreme caution when it comes to the dry grasslands and forests of the region. In and around Lac La Biche County, several wildfires continue to burn, with crews reporting them as either being held or under control. Two fires in the Beaver Lake Cree Nation are still listed as under control. …Across the Lac La Biche Forest Protection Area that covers the Lakeland area and north into the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, one new fire in the northern part of the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range has already scorched 380 hectares and is classified as out of control. 

It’s been two weeks since out-of-control wildfires began forcing evacuation orders in parts of Alberta and the situation remains critical “The wildfire situation is extremely volatile,” said Colin Blair with the Alberta Emergency Management Agency on Sunday afternoon. “Our crews have had the opportunity to build fire guards and… for the vast majority, those are holding,” said Josee St-Onge with Alberta Wildfire. …So far this year, there have been 451 wildfires in Alberta, burning 521,000 hectares. …There are 1,500 Alberta wildland firefighters battling the various blazes and 800 people from other agencies across North America helping in the fight, including 200 wildland firefighters from the U.S. and 300 members of the Canadian Armed Forces. The fire danger was considered extreme again Sunday, St-Onge said, adding that the peak risk is still ahead. “The heat event that we’re seeing in the province is starting to impact the south as well …and wildfire danger is rising.”