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, an information officer with Alberta Wildfire. “We are expecting challenging conditions to continue and that will be the case for the next few days as the hot and dry conditions persist.” It was on April 30 that parts of Yellowhead County west of Edmonton were ordered to evacuate because of a wildfire threatening the community.
Dozens of homes have since been destroyed in Wildwood, Shining Bank and Evansburg areas. On May 3, thousands of residents of Fox Creek in northern Alberta were forced to flee the flames.
Roughly 100 structures were burned there. Then, on May 5, Edson, a town west of Edmonton, was evacuated. A provincial state of emergency was declared on Saturday, May 5.
As of Sunday, there were 19 local states of emergency in place, as well as five band council resolutions. There were 14 evacuation orders in place, affecting 19,342 Albertans, an increase from Saturday’s total because of three new evacuation orders in Rainbow Lake, Sturgeon Lake First Nation and Leduc County.