Over 78 active wildfires in Alberta; Town of Drayton Valley listed as priority

Tucker said Drayton Valley’s wildfire, located about 200 km northwest of Red Deer, is one of their priority fires due to the potential impact to human life. Residents have been advised to evacuate the area.

She says that the wildfire spans 1,500 hectares and is burning inside the River Valley between the river and Highway 22, seven kilometres from the south edge of the town. She said there was overnight activity pushing the fire across the river and growing 20 hectares on that side today.

“This is a rapidly changing situation today. It’s early in the day; it’s going to get hotter, it’s going to get windier and we’re expecting some extreme wildfire behavior,” she said.

Although outside the forest protection area, Tucker confirmed they are supporting Brazeau County as much as possible, deploying an Incident Management Team, 26 firefighters, and three helicopters and air tankers, to assist municipal firefighters.

Lacroix stated other priority fires include those that are starting today, to attempt their control, and those have that have been active for over a day, such as those in Rainbow Lake and Fox Lake in northern Alberta.

While no structural losses have been reported yet for Drayton Valley, Lacroix says that Fox Lake was the most affected with the loss of 17-20 homes, a general store, police station, and some damage to their water plant.

He said that local RCMP have been helpful in sharing the critical alert with residents in the town through door knocking as part of procedure.

Tucker said that the province has had 348 wildfires since January 1, 2023, burning over 25,000 hectares of land, which is higher for this time of year than the province has seen in the recent past.

She added that through partnerships within the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, 79 firefighters will be coming today from Ontario and Quebec, and the province has requested for more

She stated that each wildfire is investigated for the cause; however, for this time of year, most are started by human activity through campfires, recreation, or exhaust from vehicles like quads. Lacroix added that the climate’s dry conditions and lack of rain could also be a cause.

He said that in the past decade, Alberta has faced seven out of the 10 worst natural disasters in the country with fires and floods. Since the 2016 wildfire in Fort McMurray, he said emergency systems have improved in robust ways through legislation, mandating local authorities and emergency managers to have response and evacuation plans, and yearly exercises to train responders.

Updated information can be found on the Alberta Wildfire Status Dashboard.

The Drayton Valley fire is listed as ‘RCU005’. Although considered ‘out of control’, Tucker said it is shown in blue on the dashboard as ‘mutual aid’ because the wildfire is outside of the Forest Protection Area and the lead agency is, therefore, the municipality and not the province. She added that the dashboard is a new innovation, created last year, and more accurate information can be found on municipal websites.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she has activated the Emergency Management Cabinet Committee to meet today at 2:30 p.m. in response to the wildfire situations.

The province adds that the premier and minister of public safety and emergency services, who serves as vice-chair of the committee, have been briefed by department officials on the state of the situation, who will also provide daily technical briefings to the media and public.

They say cabinet continues to have decision-making abilities to deal with emergency decisions and are being kept up to date, alongside leader of the Opposition Rachel Notley, per the Premier’s request.

Other information can be found on the Alberta Emergency Alert website or through the mobile app, which immediately pushes all emergency alerts out to subscribers.

by Alessia Proietti

Over 78 active wildfires in Alberta; Town of Drayton Valley listed as priority

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