Northern Alberta under fire ban as wildfires flare up, hot weather persists

CTV News

4 days ago

Multiple communities in Alta. have now been evacuated because of wildfires and officials are warning several out-of-control fires will likely spread due to wind
Multiple communities in Alberta have now been evacuated because of wildfires and officials are warning several out-of-control fires will likely spread due to wind. CTV News Edmonton's Miriam Valde-Carletti reports.
Alberta wildfires likely to grow with hot and windy conditions in the province
The province put all of northern Alberta and parts of central Alberta under a fire ban on Thursday afternoon.
Forest areas around High Level, Fort McMurray, Peace River, Slave Lake, Grande Prairie, Lac La Biche, Edson, and Whitecourt that are part of the province's Forest Protection Area were put under the fire ban at 2 p.m.
Outdoor wood fires on public and private land, and in designated and backyard firepits, are prohibited. Fire permits are also suspended under the ban.
The central Alberta counties of Parkland, Westlock, Smoky Lake, Athabasca and Lac La Biche, as well as the M.D. of Bonnyville, are also under a fire ban.
Derrick Forsythe, an information officer for Alberta Wildfire, told CTV News Edmonton temperatures are expected to remain high while humidity levels will be at relatively low levels, leading the provincial agency to issue warnings.
'The entire boreal forest is either under a red flag watch or a red flag warning today because the conditions that we're seeing are likely to contribute to extreme fire behavior over the next 24 hours,' he said on Thursday.
The province's wildfire situation escalated late Wednesday and overnight into Thursday.
wildfire evacuations near Chipewyan Lake Alberta May 29 2025
Red shading depicts an area in northern Alberta affected by wildfire evacuations on May 29, 2025. (CTV News Edmonton)
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.'
Another Loon River resident, Tony Noskeyi, said, 'The first bit (of the drive) was ashes landing on your vehicle, the wipers. We still smell like fire … because we haven't slept. We drove all night.'
Video he took shows how close one wildfire was to Highway 88, the route his family took to Edmonton. As they drove further from their home, flames turned the black sky red.
'It was scary because you could see the flames right from the highway,' Noskeyi said.
Heavy equipment, airtankers and helicopters have been assigned to help the Red Earth East firefight.
Late Thursday afternoon, the province issued an evacuation order for Peers and areas east of the hamlet in Yellowhead County due to a nearby wildfire.
Earlier this week, 1,300 residents of Swan Hills were ordered to leave their homes ahead of an advancing, wind-whipped fire, estimated to have grown to 71 square kilometres in size. The town is 180 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
There are 48 wildfires burning in Alberta as of Thursday afternoon, up from 34 on Tuesday.
Alberta Wildfire is closely monitoring two other blazes, one near Mercoal that the agency has been watching for a week, and one roughly 17 km southwest of Winefred and Grist lakes. The latter is 40-square kilometres and located about 20 kilometres from oil-and-gas infrastructure.
Other communities have been put on evacuation alert, meaning they must prepare to leave if the situation worsens.
Full details about all evacuation alerts can be found online.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Nicole Lampa, Evan Klippenstein and Miriam Valdes-Carletti