It’s shaping up to be a hot, breezy weekend in Alberta, but the gorgeous weather comes with a warning: the wildfire risk is high across most of Alberta and it wouldn’t take much for a spark to blaze out of control.
While the message may sound like a broken record — it’s been warm and dry for weeks now in Alberta — officials say people can’t get complacent.
“We have really dry conditions. All of the snow has melted and all the vegetation and grass is really dry, which makes it easier for a wildfire to start,” said Kai Bowering, an information officer with Alberta Wildfire.
The spring wildfire season is underway, when the winter snow has melted but the forest has yet to green up with leaves and spring moisture.
Dry vegetation near Whitecourt. Alta. that could easily ignite and spread quickly if a wildfire were to occur. Photo released on Friday, May 2, 2025.
Credit: Alberta Wildfire
It’s a precarious time when a warm and/or windy day could lead to fires spreading out of control — such as what happened a few weeks ago east of Edmonton, when a blaze damaged buildings at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village.
“We haven’t yet seen that vegetation greening up, which reduces the wildfire risk,” Bowering said.
“The risk is higher right now.”
Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village damaged in wildfire
There are fire bans and restrictions in place across much of the province, both issued by individual municipalities and the province.
As of Friday afternoon, fires were banned in over two dozen provincial parks and communities, and dozens more were under restrictions and advisories.
Tylor Bennett, director of protective services and fire chief of Leduc County directly south of Edmonton, said it’s fairly dry across most of the rural region.
“What we’re finding right now is the ground conditions — the soil is wet, there’s some good moisture in there, but the ground cover, the dead grass and whatnot, is what’s dry and causing some significant fire risk at this time,” Bennett said.
The county enacted a fire restriction on Friday, due to an increased risk of a blaze due to dry conditions and high winds. No fireworks, open fires, smudge fires or fires in burn barrels are allowed and all fire permits are suspended.
People can still use firepits, campfires in campsites, use gas/propane appliances such as barbecues, heaters, and firepits, and use solid-fuel (charcoal and pellets) appliances.
“We do want to make sure that you’re being mindful when you’re having those campfires. Have water on hand, a garden hose in case that fire gets out of your contained fire pit to make sure that that can be controlled,” Bennett said.
People are also advised to be mindful of other activities that can trigger a fire which may not be top of mind — such as hot exhaust from dirt bikes or sparks from industrial, farm or yard work.
“We had an incident recently where a worker was working on a fence, doing some cutting on a piece of metal. That hot piece of metal fell into the grass and started a grass fire. It spread into a subdivision and caused a fairly significant fire at the time,” Bennett said.
He said at this time of year, calling 911 as soon as smoke or flames is spotted is critical.
“We understand that some people want to try and help and put that fire out, but if you don’t call 911, there’s no help coming. If that fire gets too big for you to control, you’re delaying that response.”
If firefighters are responding to a grass or forest fire, crews can be tied up for a longer time than other calls such as collisions, which takes emergency resources out of service.
“It makes things a bit busier and harder to manage,” Bennett said.
Alberta Wildfire has jurisdiction over the forest protection area, which encompasses most of northern Alberta’s Boreal forest, as well as the western foothills and mountains outside the national parks.
On Friday, the fire risk in those 10 regions was either high or very high and Alberta Wildfire said if a blaze were to break out, high-intensity fire is expected and it could be challenging to suppress.
An airtanker on alert at the Slave Lake Airtanker Base on Friday, May 2, 2025.
Credit: Alberta Wildfire
This early in the season, lighting isn’t as big a concern as human activity.
“For human-caused wildfires, a big one is abandoned campfires and also any winter burns that weren’t properly extinguished. So we just encourage people to use extra caution if they’re going to have a campfire and double check their burn sites this spring as well,” Bowering said.
Bowering said conditions right now aren’t as bad as this time in 2024 due to the province receiving more snow this past winter.
There is some rain in the forecast over the next week, but it remains to be seen how the rest of the spring and summer will go.
“The amount of rain that we receive in the spring has a really big impact on what the fire season will look like,” Bowering said.
While the City of Edmonton has not declared a fire ban since May of 2023, Edmonton Fire Rescue Services said conditions are not bad enough right now for any bans or restrictions.
Over the course of April, city firefighters responded to 127 small brush or grass fires — 10 of which threatened nearby structures — and five larger ones. The city said that was less than last year — 175 — but more than in 2023, when fire crews dealt with 104 blazes.
The city is reminding people to be smart when using outdoor fire pits, barbecues, and other open flames, no matter the time of year.
A fire should never be left burning unattended. If stepping away, even for a moment, the fire and embers should be fully extinguished.
Additionally, smoking materials like cigarettes should only be disposed of in deep, sturdy, non-combustible ashtrays — never out of car windows, on the ground, or in plant pots, potting soil, peat moss or other types of soil where combustible materials are present.