3 more northern Alta. communities evacuated because of wildfires overnight
Alberta's wildfire situation escalated over Wednesday night.
Four northern communities were evacuated, starting with Chipewyan Lake at 5 p.m.
Then, between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., the province evacuated Red Earth Creek, Peerless Trout First Nation, and Loon River First Nation.
Near the lakes that share a name with these communities – Loon Lake, Trout Lake and Chipewyan Lake – is what authorities have named the Red Earth East wildfire complex, which consists of 10 different wildfires.
'I noticed the smoke in our area so it got me thinking that maybe we're going to be evacuated because Peerless (Trout First Nation) was evacuated. So it just made sense that we were going to be next,' Loon River resident Matthew Letendre told CTV News Edmonton early Thursday morning at the Edmonton hotel his family was staying at.
'It just happened fast. We were driving to Slave (Lake) and then we passed that fire that was there. We actually saw the flames from that fire. It kind of hit us right there.'
Heavy equipment, airtankers and helicopters have been assigned to help the Red Earth East firefight.
As of Thursday morning, 44 wildfires were burning in Alberta, up from 34 on Tuesday.
This is a breaking news story. More to come…
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