Wildfire live updates: Fort Chipewyan residents charged after setting off fireworks amid fire bans across Alberta
A fire ban is now in place in the entire Forest Protection Area of Alberta to prevent new fires and allow resources to be available for active fires. The ban was previously in place for the northern and central parts of the protection area but has since been expanded due to the growing wildfire threat.
Article content
Campfires are not allowed on public or private land, including campgrounds and backyards. Propane fire pits are still allowed.
Article content
Rocky View County also issued a fire ban across its entire jurisdiction, it said in a news release issued Friday afternoon.
Article content
'All burning and fireworks permits are suspended, and burning is banned,' the county said, with limited exceptions for indoor household fireplaces; properly attended camp stoves; charcoal briquette, propane, or natural gas barbecues; wood pellet grills; propane and natural gas fire pit; and oil well flaring with proper county registration.
Article content
Article content
Fire bans are a great way to manage and prevent human-caused wildfires, said Story. Fire bans allow crews to focus on the current wildfire situation and respond to active out-of-control wildfires and not use resources to put out abandoned campfires.
Article content
'We all have a role to play in preventing wildfires here in the province,' said Story.
Article content
'Many if not virtually all of the fires that we're dealing with in Saskatchewan, although not intentional, are human-caused,' Moe said.
Article content
With below-normal snowpacks during the winter and predicted summer-time drought conditions hitting various parts of Canada, the wildfire season could be a difficult one. Already, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have declared states of emergency to help protect people from raging flames and significant evacuations of northern communities in both provinces have seen thousands of people forced to flee their homes.
Article content
Article content
'This is the largest evacuation in many Manitobans' living memory and this will require significant resources and co-operation from all levels of government,' says Manitoba premier Wab Kinew. Already, two people have died in wildfires in that province.
Article content
'Wildland fire activity is significant within one or more jurisdictions,' CIFFC says. 'Firefighters and equipment in every jurisdiction is put to use, and international help has been requested.'
Article content
Article content
In Alberta, go to alberta.ca/wildfire-status. That's where you'll find a wildfire map, dashboard of incidents and forest area updates.
In British Columbia, the daily wildfire update is at wildfiresituation.nrs.gov.bc.ca/map.
In Saskatchewan, the active wildifre situation map can be found here and reports on bans along with fire bulletins are here.
In Manitoba, wildfire information, reports and updates are here.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Snow Lake prepares for imminent return of 1,000 twice-evacuated residents
About 1,000 wildfire evacuees from Snow Lake are expected to soon join thousands of Manitobans who are gradually returning home after firefighters were aided by cool and wet weather. Mayor Ron Scott said sprinklers were being taken down and essential services, including a grocery store, were starting to be restored to help prepare for residents once provincial officials deem it safe to go back. 'They will basically be giving us the green light in terms of when people can come back, but we do expect it to be soon,' he said by phone from Snow Lake, about 690 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. TOWN OF SNOWLAKE / FACEBOOK Aerial photos of Snow Lake which was evacuated July 10 for the second time this wildfire season. Snow Lake was evacuated July 10 for the second time this wildfire season, which is Manitoba's worst on record in 30 years. The first evacuation lasted a week. The second has entered its sixth week. 'It's certainly been very tough on everybody,' said Scott, who stayed in The Pas until council members returned to the town Monday. 'I know everyone is getting frustrated and wants to get back home as soon as possible, and the same goes for all our crews that stayed behind — from firefighters to support (staff) to the command team. 'Everyone is tired. They want this to be over and to get on with their lives.' When Snow Lake residents are allowed to return home, a welcome centre will be set up to offer physical and mental-health services, a food bank and other supports. Rain, light winds and cooler temperatures have helped crews make good progress on several large blazes this week. Some communities lifted mandatory or medical-related evacuation orders. Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (Nelson House) began a phased return of about 3,000 evacuees Wednesday, Deputy Chief Marcel Moody said. The status of a 46,000-hectare fire, north of NCN, changed from 'out of control' to 'being held,' as per the Manitoba Wildfire Service. Evacuees in Winnipeg are scheduled to return by bus Friday. 'People want to go back because there have been so many issues with accommodations here in Winnipeg,' Moody said. Officials were concerned about evacuees' safety in congregate shelters and hotels, and about reports of drug dealers preying on people with addictions, he said. Some evacuees in hotels had to relocate because they were in rooms that had been previously booked, he said. Moody said about 600 evacuees who were moved to Niagara Falls, Ont., are expected to fly home next week. Evacuees with breathing issues or other serious medical conditions were not yet cleared to return to NCN, about 800 kilometres north of Winnipeg. NCN issued a mandatory evacuation order Aug. 3. It was paused a couple days later, allowing hundreds of residents to remain, after the wind direction shifted. Manitoba had an estimated 12,830 evacuees as of Thursday morning, with almost 600 in shelters and about 7,125 in hotels, a provincial spokesperson said. The total was closer to 14,000 last week. The Manitoba Wildfire's Service's most recent situation report listed 158 active fires as of Wednesday, including 19 that were out of control. A provincewide state of emergency is in effect until next Aug. 22. FACEBOOK Costa Rican firefighters on their way to Manitoba to help with wildfires. Snow Lake received 15 millimetres of rain in the 24 hours to Thursday morning, which is expected to keep fire behaviour low for a few days. The town had received only about 38 millimetres since May 5, Scott said. 'It underscores the extreme drought conditions we've been having all summer,' he said. Scott said 100 firefighters from Costa Rica are set to arrive this weekend, while crews from Mexico and Australia depart. They will join firefighters from Snow Lake and other parts of Manitoba. 'There's a major push on to to get this fire dealt with and get it put out,' he said. 'It's been a long battle for everybody, but they've done an incredible job.' Snow Lake and nearby mining areas were threatened by an out-of-control fire that was caused by lightning and detected July 1. The blaze, which merged with several others, measured almost 64,000 hectares. Scott said no structures were damaged in town, despite flames on its doorstep at one point. 'The crews were able to battle that (fire) back. It was a very close fight a couple weeks ago,' he said. 'Same for the (Lalor) mine. They managed to save all the area around that mine.' One cabin and some outbuildings around Squall Lake were lost, he said. Wednesdays What's next in arts, life and pop culture. Manitoba Hydro said about 1,300 customers are without power in five northern communities due to wildfires. The Crown corporation said it is unable to estimate restoration times. Evacuees from Mathias Colomb Cree Nation (Pukatawagan) have been out of their homes since late May, initially due to a nearby fire and now due to an ongoing power outage. Manitoba Hydro said repairs to wooden poles, power lines and transformers are taking place in remote areas with difficult terrain and little or no road access. The utility said more than 1,200 poles have been damaged or destroyed, with about 500 repaired or replaced so far. Chris KitchingReporter Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris. Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Breath of fresh air
After weeks of air quality warnings, Manitobans can breathe a sigh of relief. 'We have finally cleared our air quality alerts for not only the Winnipeg area, but for Manitoba and Saskatchewan, which has not been the case for quite some time,' said Christy Climenhaga, a scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. 'We've finally seen some rain in parts of central Saskatchewan and central Manitoba, expecting a little bit more. And looking at our air quality, our current values are pretty good.' As of Wednesday afternoon, Winnipeg's air quality risk was at level three — meaning low risk — dropping from moderate risk Tuesday night. There have been warnings and alerts in Manitoba for about the last month, excepting a few short periods, said Climenhaga. There is some remaining smoke that has yet to pass, but Climenhaga said weather models show 'pretty decent' forecasts and more rain coming. There have been around 350 hours of smoke in Winnipeg this summer, making it the smokiest summer on record. Climenhaga encouraged Winnipeggers to enjoy the clearer air but to keep an eye out for future alerts. 'We'll have to see how this latest dose of rain helps the situation. Cool air, rain in that region is a good thing, but if we do get more lightning, it's something that could continue to be an issue,' she said. 'I would say it's nice to see a change and maybe some improvement in our air quality over the next little while, but there's still quite a bit of season left.' Malak AbasReporter Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg's North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak. Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
4 days ago
This is our second-worst wildfire season on record — and could be the new normal
This year's wildfire season is already the second-worst on record in Canada, and experts are warning that this might be the new normal. More than 7.3 million hectares have burned this year so far, more than double the 10-year average for this time of year, according to the latest figures from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) and Natural Resources Canada. It's the size of New Brunswick, to put it into context, Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire at Thompson Rivers University, told CBC News. The last three fire seasons are among the 10 worst on record, according to a federal database dating back to 1972, with 2023's devastating blazes taking the top spot. I've never seen three bad fire seasons in a row, Flannigan, who has been studying fires since the '70s, said. I've seen two in a row: '94, '95. I've never seen three. This is scary. Manitoba and Saskatchewan account for more than half the area burned so far, but British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario are all also well above their 25-year averages. Fire bans have been announced in multiple provinces, including a total ban on going in the woods in Nova Scotia. Enlarge image (new window) Source: Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre Photo: CBC See interactive chart here (new window) Meanwhile, the military and coast guard were called in to help fight fires in Newfoundland and Labrador this week. Around 1,400 international firefighters have also helped fight Canadian fires so far this year, according to the CIFFC. Scientists say that climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, has created longer fire seasons and drier landscapes, sparking more intense and widespread forest fires. I used to always say… some years are cooler and wetter and we will get quiet years, Flannigan said. But maybe every year's going to be a bad fire year now. Dry conditions across the country have allowed fires to quickly balloon this fire season. Enlarge image (new window) Wildfires burn near Sherridon, Man., on May 27. Photo: Gouvernement du Manitoba The forests of Canada are too dry, too hot, Environment Canada climatologist David Phillips told CBC News. This year… there's no kind of reprieve from what we've seen. This year has seen notable blazes in regions where we haven't historically, such as Newfoundland and Labrador, where one fire has grown to over 5,200 hectares. Yan Boulanger, a research scientist in forest ecology at Natural Resources Canada, says Newfoundland is not used to [seeing] huge fires. But we will have to get more and more used to it, because those ecosystems are also projected to see an increase in fire activity in the upcoming decades. The other outlier is Quebec, which was one of the hardest-hit provinces in 2023, when an estimated 4.5 million hectares burned. This year, the province has had a much milder fire season, thanks to frequent precipitation in the spring and early summer, Boulanger says. But a sudden bout of dry conditions in August, usually a quiet fire month for the province, has experts recommending vigilance. Consequences of repeated fires Bad back-to-back fire seasons can have huge consequences. Fire is a natural part of the lifecycle for many tree species, but a forest can become damaged to the point where trees cannot regrow in the area for years, or even decades. It's called regeneration failure. Enlarge image (new window) A firefighter works on the Wesley Ridge wildfire, burning about 60 kilometres northwest of Nanaimo, B.C., on Sunday. Photo: La Presse canadienne / BC Wildfire Service The problem is when we have too much fire and we are getting out of what we are calling the natural variability of the system, Boulanger said. When such things happen… the forest can lose its resilience. Scientists are already seeing it in regions of Quebec that were heavily damaged in 2023, and in parts of the Northwest Territories and Alberta, Boulanger says. Right now, around 300,000 to 400,000 hectares are affected by regeneration failure in Quebec. Fewer trees means less carbon being stored, exacerbating the problem of increased emissions that occur during widespread forest fires. The 2023 fires produced nearly a quarter of the year's global wildfire carbon emissions. Meanwhile, wildfire smoke has been linked to a myriad of health complications, including a higher risk of dementia. WATCH | Calls picking up for a national wildfire agency: With intense wildfires becoming an annual problem in Canada on a new scale, we need more strategies, experts say. The Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs (CAFC) has called on Ottawa to establish a national forest fire co-ordination agency (new window) to ensure that personnel and equipment can be distributed across the country when different regions are seeing heavy fires, and that fire chiefs are at the table when national policies are made. The government has been studying the possibility of creating a national disaster response agency since 2023, and met with CAFC to discuss it in December. But it's time to move beyond the planning stage, according to Ken McMullen, the organization's president and fire chief in Red Deer, Alta. All parties are saying that they think it's a good idea. The reality is nobody's helped pick up the ball and get it across the finish line, he said. Flannigan, at Thompson Rivers University, supports the idea, but believes we need to go further and create a robust national emergency management agency that would be able to provide training for fighting wildfires, forecast where fires are likely to occur and whether they're a danger, and then move resources there proactively. Yes, it's going to cost money, but if it prevents one Jasper, one Fort McMurray, it pays for itself, he said, referring to the Alberta communities ravaged in recent years by fires. The status quo doesn't seem to be working. We're spending billions and billions of dollars on fire management expenditures, but our area burned has quadrupled since the 1970s. Alexandra Mae Jones (new window) · CBC News Alexandra Mae Jones is a senior writer for CBC News based in Toronto. She has written on a variety of topics, from health to pop culture to breaking news, and previously reported for CTV News and the Toronto Star. She joined CBC in 2024. You can reach her at With files from The Canadian Press
