After 2011 wildfire, Slave Lake better prepared amid current evacuation alert

Global News

22-07-2025

A northern Alberta community that's no stranger to the devastation of a wildfire is on standby to flee if needed.
After lightning from a thunderstorm sparked a fire on Sunday in the Municipal District of Lesser Slave River, an evacuation alert was issued both for the rural area surrounding the blaze, as well as for the town of Slave Lake — which was razed by one of Alberta's costliest wildfires in 2011.
At the time, nearly 400 homes and businesses, including an apartment complex and town hall, were reduced to ash and rubble when fierce winds whipped flames through the town north of Edmonton with little warning. Damages were pegged at $700 million — one of the country's costliest disasters until the Fort McMurray wildfire happened out four years later.
The fire burning now is about 20 kilometres northeast of Slave Lake and 12 kilometres to the east of Marten Beach.
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The SWF149 wildfire near Slave Lake, Alta., broke out on Sunday, July 20, 2025. Alberta Wildfire
'It grew to about 40 hectares within two hours, which is pretty significant growth for a fire in under two hours,' said Ryan Coutts, deputy fire chief with the Lesser Slave Regional Fire Service.
'It's just under 20 kilometres from Slave Lake right now, and then some other subdivisions that we're watching, just over 10 kilometres to some of those subdivisions north of Slave Lake.'
An Alberta Emergency Alert is in effect for the town of Slave Lake, including properties along Devonshire Road North and everyone in the MD of Lesser Slave River located in the Hamlet of Marten Beach, Summerwood, Township Road 740 and Gillwood Golf Course.
Everyone in the town and on properties along Devonshire Road North must be prepared to evacuate within eight hours' notice. Everyone close to the fire in the MD of Lesser Slave River needs to be ready to flee within four hours.
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Slave Lake fire: 5 years later
'Generally we set trigger points for what we are seeing that fire do and then how much time we need or we think we need to get everyone out safely. You know, lessons learned from 2011 to try and not have that mass chaos and get people out safely with not as much panic as possible, I guess,' Coutts said.
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The town aims to give residents as much advance notice as possible so they can be prepared.
'Yes, it is a stressful situation. Yes, people are gonna be nervous and anxious, but the point of trying to give that information early is so that people can go and get gas and can pack some things up and can have the time to do that and kind of process rather than doing it at the last second,' Coutts said.
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Looking ahead to Alberta's wildfire season
Cooler temperatures and rain on Monday have helped reduce the fire activity, but that relief is expected to be temporary with return of hot and dry conditions later this week.
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The out-of-control wildfire and related evacuation alerts can be triggering to resident who experienced the devastating 2011 fire – however the opposite is also true.
Some Slave Lake residents say they are almost desensitized, and lack a sense of urgency because there's so many emergency alerts nowadays.
'We get so many of them that you start to kind of not pay a whole lot of attention to them,' said Laura Somerville, adding they are prepared in the event they do have to flee on short notice.
' You have your little box ready to go with all your important information in it and so on.'
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Residents have seen an increase in water bomber activity in the area in the past 24 hours with crews scooping up water from Lesser Slave Lake.
Somerville's husband works in forestry. She said they have an inside scoop on whether a fire like the one that started on Sunday is something to be worried about or not.
'He wasn't super worried about it,' Somerville said. 'We've got really good firefighting crews and everybody was on it like immediately, so you become a little less worried for that reason I think because we know there's good people taking care of us.'
Coutts said the emergency alert system isn't perfect and the criteria for when alerts are sent, and who gets them, could be refined so they aren't ignored.
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The 2011 blaze was, at the time, was one of the worst in Canadian history and prompted a visit from the newlyweds William, Prince of Wales and his wife Catherine.
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The Duke And Duchess of Cambridge inspect a fire damaged car as they walk through Slave Lake, Alta., on July 6, 2011. Photo by Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images
In the nearly 15 years since the Slave Lake wildfire, the community has made changes from lessons observed at home and elsewhere. One such change: modifying fire trucks so they can be more responsive to wildfires, not just structure fires in town.
'The ladder truck, for example, didn't have any forestry hose on it because generally a ladder truck is not used to fight forest fires. We've seen that where we had to use absolutely everything that we had,' Coutts said.
'So little tweaks like that to equipment, trucks and equipment being specifically bought with some of those applications in mind.'
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There's also more joint training.
'We have really good training for wildland firefighters, we have good training for structural firefighters but in the last 10 years, how do we bring those together so that people can be safe in these environments where wildland fires are coming into communities?'
Coutts said strong mutual aid agreements with surrounding communities and Alberta Wildfire crews is also key.
'We can pull resources from probably five counties pretty easily with just phone calls,' he said, adding firefighters from across Alberta pitch in to help when needed.
'We had a crew from 40 Mile County, which is down by Lethbridge, up here this year for a wildfire,' he said.
'It's awesome that everyone's willing to help, especially from southern Alberta when maybe they're wet and we're dry up here.'
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The fire risk on Monday was moderate, down from very high on Sunday when conditions were hot and dry.
As of Monday afternoon, the wildfire near Slave Lake had only grown about four hectares overnight.
Firefighters in helicopters and airtankers responded, Alberta Wildifre said, explaining heavy equipment built containment line around the fire and night vision-equipped helicopters and firefighters worked overnight.
Rain reduced fire activity on Monday as additional firefighters and heavy equipment were enroute to help.
So far in 2025, Alberta Wildfire said there have been 147 wildfires reported in the Slave Lake Forest Area, burning a total of 378,250 hectares.
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— with files from Lisa MacGregor, Global News