While Alberta is experiencing cooler weather and higher relative humidity on Thursday, officials say it’s too soon to breathe a sigh of relief as the wildfire danger still remains high across much of the province.
The most notable fire in Alberta currently is burning northeast of Edmonton in Sturgeon County, near the town of Redwater.
Over 24 hours between Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, Strugeon County said that fire doubled in size to a total of approximately 3,000 hectares.
Smoke from the wildfire near Redwater in Sturgeon County on Tuesday, May 6, 2025.
Global News
The evacuation zone for the fire grew late Wednesday night, and now encompasses all properties from Township Road 580 south to the North Saskatchewan River, between Range Road 213 East and Range Road 203.
The threat of further fire spread continues, the county said, with high winds in the forecast into Friday.
“Temperature, humidity and wind — that’s going to dictate how the fire operates,” Redwater Mayor David McRae said on Thursday.
Thankfully for the town, on Thursday the county said wind was blowing the flames southeast away from the community.
Sturgeon County on Thursday, May 8, 2025.
Global News
“I’m much more comfortable than I was a couple of days ago. The fire crews have been tremendous,” McRae said, noting the town has been a part of the Sturgeon Regional Emergency Management Partnership, which is a coordination of six municipalities for emergency response, for 15 years.
It means a great deal of cooperation between the communities, along with help from Alberta Wildfire.
“Everything that can be thrown at it has been,” he said. “There’s aircraft involved, there’s fire bombers involved, there’s helicopters involved, there’s ground crews involved, bulldozers.”
Wildfire grows near Redwater in Sturgeon County
The evacuation alert area remained unchanged on Thursday and applies to everyone located east of Range Road 223 to the North Saskatchewan River and between Township Road 580 south to Township Road 570, including the Town of Redwater.
“Be prepared. Make sure you’ve got fuel in your vehicle,” McRae, a former police officer of three decades, said.
He added families should have an emergency plan that includes having a go-bag ready with medications, important documents, electronics, irreplaceable heirlooms, pet supplies and other essentials.
He also advised residents to be mindful of road closures in the event they do have to move quickly to get out of a fire zone.
“Do all those precautionary things. Make sure you’re ready.”
Conditions can change rapidly, the mayor said, making reference to the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire that forced tens of thousands of people to flee the northern Alberta community with very little notice on a warm, windy May afternoon, as the flames bore down on the city.
“We saw the pictures of people driving through corridors of flames just to get to safety. So the idea is be prepared,” he said.
“Make sure that you understand the situation is dynamic. (The fire) going to move — good, bad or indifferent — at its own will.”
Fort McMurray Wildfire: Sights and sounds from the fire
About an hour north of the Redwater wildfire, most of the residents who had to flee their homes in the village of Boyle and surrounding Athabasca County on Tuesday were allowed to return on Thursday.
A handful of county residents closer to where the fire originated still must stay away, however.
That fire is now classified as being held.
The fire danger across northern and western Alberta remains high to extreme, Alberta Wildfire said in updates from the 10 forest protection area regions it manages.
The forest protection area (FPA) runs along the foothills and Rocky Mountains, and all of northern Alberta’s boreal forest. Alberta Wildfire takes the lead when a fire breaks out in those areas.
The FPA encompasses rural areas around the communities of Edson and Hinton, Grande Prairie, High Level, Fort McMurray, Peace River, Lac La Biche, Slave Lake and Whitecourt, Rocky Mountain House and Calgary.
Due to increasing wildfire danger and many active wildfires across the province, on Wednesday Alberta Wildfire implemented a fire ban across much of the forest protection area.
At that time, Alberta Wildfire said the area at greatest risk right now isn’t the usual northern forest but instead, the middle of the province where there is more parkland and grasslands.
“The highest risk, oddly enough, is in what we call the ‘agricultural area’ which is kind of that central, southern, eastern portion of the province,” said wildfire information officer Derek Forsythe.
Due to hot, dry and windy conditions, the fire danger is extreme in the region surrounding Lac La Biche, Slave Lake, and Whitecourt, and very high to high further north near Fort McMurray, High Level, and Peace River.
“Due to increasing temperatures expected over the coming days, and the potential for lightning, the wildfire danger level is very high in the Fort McMurray Forest Area,” the province said in a Thursday afternoon update.
“Conditions are extremely dry and extreme caution needs to be taken when recreating in the forest.”
More information on all the fire bans and restrictions across the province is available online at: albertafirebans.ca and albertaparks.ca/firebans.
Information on all the wildfires currently burning across the province is also available online at alberta.ca/alberta-wildfire.