Latest news with #YellowheadCounty
CTV News
7 days ago
- Climate
- CTV News
Some Alberta residents return home amidst wildfires
Edmonton Watch Some residents of Yellowhead County, west of Edmonton, were allowed home on Tuesday after being evacuated due to wildfire.
CBC
02-06-2025
- Climate
- CBC
Wildfire evacuation orders to lift Tuesday in Yellowhead County
Albertans forced out of Yellowhead County due to fast-moving wildfires will soon be allowed to return home. Two fires have put three communities in the county under threat, triggering a string of evacuation orders and displacing around 500 people. Yellowhead County Mayor Wade Williams said all evacuation orders in effect in the region will lift at noon Tuesday. Shortly before 8:30 p.m. MT Friday, the county told people living in the communities of Mercoal and Robb, each roughly 280 kilometres west of Edmonton, that they had to flee. The fire, now six kilometres west of Mercoal and 16 kilometres southwest of Robb, remains classified as out of control and has spread across 320 hectares. Evacuation orders were issued for Peers last Thursday, a hamlet about 180 kilometres west of Edmonton. On Friday evening, the county expanded the evacuation zone as the fire, driven by powerful winds, multiplied in size and moved dangerously close to the remote hamlet. The fire burning to the south of Peers, which now straddles Highway 32, continues to burn out of control and has consumed around 730 hectares. During an interview Monday, Williams detailed the battle to save the remote communities as conditions grew increasingly explosive during record-breaking temperatures and severe winds last week. Williams said Peers, which sits just north of a CN rail track, was "very much under threat" on Friday as winds pushed flames north. He said crews were able to hold the line with help from helicopters, CN Rail's Neptune firefighting train, and a series of sprinkler systems that had been set up in advance to dampen the fire's approach. "That fire took a run at Peers late Friday evening," he said. "Had all that equipment not been set up and in place, it would have been devastating for that community. "Crews were able to stop that fire right at the tracks, right on the very southern border of the community." He said the fire near Mercoal was also considered an imminent threat due to high winds and dry conditions. A swath of the nearby forest had been killed off by mountain pine beetle infestations, leaving it tinder dry, he said. "Fire can travel extremely quickly," he said. "For the safety of residents, we had to evacuate." After hot, dry weather last week fanned the flames of fires burning across the province, cooler temperatures and rain over the weekend helped dampen the wildfire risk. Williams said he is grateful to firefighters and thankful that residents will soon be allowed back home. He said the community is familiar with the danger of fire on the landscape after a string of fires ignited across the county in 2023, closing highways, triggering a wave of evacuations and burning dozens of homes to the ground. He said the devastation seen that summer has helped the county better prepare for the worst. "This time around, we've got two fires burning in the county. Last time we had 13. It was two totally different stories, but we learned an awful lot from 2023. Things went much, much smoother this time." Losses in Chipewyan Lake The fires in Yellowhead County are among more than 50 burning across the province Monday, more than half of which remain out of control. A dozen communities remain under evacuation orders and an estimated 4,500 Albertans have been forced from their homes. While communities in Yellowhead County have been spared, other evacuees are beginning to learn about the damage caused by last week's volatile conditions. Officials in Chipewyan Lake announced over the weekend that an estimated 27 structures in the remote northern Alberta community have been destroyed. A fire moved in late last week, damaging firefighting equipment and temporarily trapping a crew overnight, as the flames flared and burned trees fell like matchsticks, blocking the only road out. Some of the community's most critical infrastructure, including the water treatment plant, health centre, school and church, were lost to the flames, officials said. The fire continues to burn out of control at 132,167 hectares.
CBC
31-05-2025
- Climate
- CBC
Yellowhead County issues 2nd wildfire evacuation order
More Yellowhead County residents had to leave their homes Friday, after the county issued a new wildfire evacuation order for two communities and expanded an existing order. Shortly before 8:30 p.m. MT Friday, the county told people living in the communities of Mercoal and Robb — each roughly 240 kilometres west of Edmonton — they have to flee. An out-of-control fire, that spanned 400 hectares around 9 p.m. MT Friday, burns just west of the communities, according to Alberta Wildfire's dashboard. Firefighters have finished installing a sprinkler protection system in Mercoal and are setting up sprinklers in Robb and Peers, according to a Facebook post from Yellowhead County Saturday morning. The hamlet of Peers was affected by a separate evacuation order Thursday, because of a wildfire just south of the community, about 100 kilometres northeast of the Mercoal fire. WATCH | The fire weather pattern everyone is watching: The fire weather pattern everyone is watching 2 days ago Duration 1:41 It's still May, and wildfire season across the Prairies is already off to a dangerous and fast-moving start. Meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe explains how extreme heat, and gusty winds are creating a perfect storm for fire growth — with no rain in sight. But on Friday evening, the county had to expand the area affected by that order because the fire had grown to 1,400 hectares as of 9 p.m., the wildfire dashboard shows. The map suggests the fire has blocked off part of Highway 32 that connects to Highway 16, a major thoroughfare that runs from Jasper, Alta., through Edmonton, to Lloydminster, Alta. Anyone living 1.6 kilometres — one mile — west of Highway 32 and north to McLeod River has to leave, the updated order says. As of 10 a.m. Saturday, 61 total active wildfires are burning throughout Alberta, the wildfire dashboard shows. About 60 per cent are out of control.
CTV News
30-05-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
Wildfire evacuation order issued for Peers in Yellowhead County
An evacuation order was issued for the Hamlet of Peers in Yellowhead County due to a nearby wildfire on May 29, 2025. (Photo: Alberta Emergency Alerts) An evacuation order was issued in Yellowhead County due to a nearby wildfire. The order was issued at 5:04 p.m. on Thursday for the Hamlet of Peers and 'areas east.' A reception centre was set up at the Holiday Inn in Edson. Evacuees can call 1-833-334-4630. The Alberta Wildfire dashboard lists a 15-hectare out-of-control wildfire south of Peers on Highway 32. According to the alert, Highway 32 was closed one kilometre south of Peers. The evacuation routes for the area were north on Highway 32 and west on Highway 748 or west on Highway 16 for people southeast of Peers. The Hamlet of Peers is about 180 kilometres west of Edmonton, near Carrot Creek. The population of Peers is 91 according to the 2021 census.
Reuters
27-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Wildfire in Alberta disrupts oil operations and prompts evacuations
CALGARY, May 27 (Reuters) - A wildfire in the Canadian province of Alberta prompted the temporary shutdown of some oil and gas production and forced residents of a small town to evacuate. The blaze, which Alberta Wildfire said is approximately 1,600 hectares in size, is burning out of control about 7 km north of the town of Swan Hills in the northern part of the province. Oil-and-gas producer Aspenleaf Energy, which has wells in the area, evacuated its local field staff and temporarily halted operations, shutting in approximately 4,000 barrels-of-oil-equivalent per day of production. CEO Bryan Gould said in an interview the fire was about 10 km from Aspenleaf's facilities Monday evening, adding the company's decision to shut in production was made out of an abundance of caution. Canadian Natural Resources ( opens new tab, Canada's largest oil-and-gas producer, also has operations in the Swan Hills area. The company has not responded to a request for comment. The approximately 1,200 residents of the town of Swan Hills were ordered to evacuate on Monday evening. Evacuees were directed to a reception centre in the nearby town of Whitecourt, approximately a 50-minute drive to the south. Another smaller wildfire, approximately 390 hectares in size, is burning out of control in Yellowhead County, in western Alberta. The blazes are Alberta's first significant fires this spring, following a that was one of the most destructive on record, largely due to the devastation caused by a blaze that ripped through Jasper, a tourist town in the Canadian Rockies. Wildfires have hit oil and gas production in Canada several times in the past decade. Last year, Suncor Energy ( opens new tab, Canada's second-largest oil sands producer, temporarily curtailed production at its Firebag complex due to a nearby blaze. In May of 2023, companies shut in at least 319,000 boepd, or 3.7% of Canada's total production, as more than 100 wildfires burned in Alberta. In 2016, thousands of oil sands workers were evacuated as a monster wildfire destroyed part of the community of Fort McMurray, forcing companies to reduce their oil output by a million barrels per day.
