Latest news with #NorthernAlberta
CTV News
2 days ago
- Climate
- CTV News
Wildfire breaches Chipewyan Lake, temporarily stranding firefighters
An undated photo of firefighting crews in Chipewyan Lake, Alta., in May 2025. (Source: Alberta government) Two firefighting crews in northern Alberta temporarily lost contact with their command centre Thursday evening after a wildfire breached the community they were working to protect. The firefighters in Chipewyan Lake – four municipal firefighters and four firefighters specialized in preventing wildfire spread in urban settings – lost radio contact around 8:40 p.m., according to Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen and the Municipal District of Opportunity. Authorities knew they were safe; one team sheltered at the community's fire station, while the other sheltered in the school, which had been designated the emergency shelter. Attempts to use night-vision helicopters failed because of the heavy smoke, so at midnight, officials were still working on an extraction plan. Eventually, it was determined the road out of the community was safe and the stranded teams drove out, assisted by a 20-person forestry crew who cleared felled trees. More details are expected Friday, but the municipal district said 'preliminary reports indicate that there is structure loss in the community.' This is a developing news story. More to come…
CTV News
2 days ago
- Climate
- CTV News
CTV National News: 'It was scary… scary because you can see the flames'
Watch Overnight, four northern Alberta towns were told to evacuate quickly due to the threat from 10 different wildfires. Kathy Le has more.
CTV News
3 days ago
- Climate
- CTV News
Northern Alberta under fire ban as wildfires flare up, hot weather persists
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
Reuters
4 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Cenovus Energy scales back non-essential staff from Foster Creek facility
May 28 (Reuters) - Cenovus Energy ( opens new tab said on Wednesday it was scaling back non-essential workforce from its Foster Creek facility in response to wildfires in Northern Alberta. A recent wildfire in the Canadian province of Alberta, has prompted a temporary shutdown of some oil and gas production and forced residents of a nearby small town to evacuate. Alberta Wildfire said that the blaze, nearly 1,600 hectares in size, is burning out of control about 7 km north of Swan Hills in the province's northern region. The Canadian oil and gas producer added that it was closely monitoring the evolving wildfire situation in the region and the staffing measure was a precaution.
CTV News
5 days ago
- Climate
- CTV News
Additional firefighting resources to arrive in Swan Hills Tuesday
An aerial photo the Lake Edith wildfire near Swan Hills on May 27, 2025. (Source: Alberta Wildfire) The Lake Edith wildfire threatening the evacuated town of Swan Hills in northern Alberta has grown to nearly 23 square kilometres, with hot and windy conditions expected on Tuesday. Fire activity remained low overnight due to cool temperatures and high humidity, but is expected to increase throughout the day, according to Alberta Wildfire. Also on Tuesday, an incident command team and additional firefighting crews are expected to join municipal and provincial firefighters, heavy equipment and helicopter operators, and wildland urban interface crews tasked with protecting buildings in Swan Hills. The town of 1,200 was evacuated early Monday evening. A reception centre was set up in Whitecourt, 120 kilometres to the south. The town also declared a state of local emergency. The wildfire was first detected Sunday afternoon eight kilometres north of Swan Hills and five kilometres west of Highway 33, which is closed between Swan Hills and Lesser Slave Lake to the north because of poor visibility. Although the weather slowed the growth of the Lake Edith wildfire Monday night, lightning did spark several wildfires in the Slave Lake Forest Area. A six-hectare blaze north of Whitefish Lake First Nation remained out of control Tuesday morning, although firefighters were able to build a containment line around it. Multiple lightning-caused wildfires were also detected west of Chipewyan Lake. Neither community is at risk, Alberta Wildfire said. There are 26 active wildfires in Alberta, nine of which are classified as out of control. More to come…
