A group of firefighters in northern Alberta faced a scary situation when communication with them was temporarily lost on Thursday while they worked to protect the community of Chipewyan Lake from the encroaching flames from two wildfires.
In a social media post, the province’s Minister of Forestry and Parks, Todd Loewen, said radio contact was temporarily lost with eight members of a wildland-urban interface crew in the community at around 8:20 p.m.
Alberta’s Minister of Forestry, Todd Loewen, said in a social media post that radio contact was temporarily lost with a crew of firefighters in the community of Chipewyan Lake at around 8:20 p.m. on Thursday.
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However, Loewen said the firefighters were determined to be safe and found shelter in the community fire station and school, which has been designated as the community’s emergency shelter.
A mandatory evacuation order for the Chipewyan Lake, located about 130 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, was issued Wednesday night.
Loewen said sprinkler protection systems have been set up in key areas of the community, adding there are preliminary indications that some structures in the community have been damaged, however, the extent of that damage is unclear so far.
On Friday morning, the Municipal District of Opportunity confirmed the firefighters were able to safely drive out of the community after a 20-person crew was sent to assist them with clearing fallen trees from the road.
As firefighters across the Prairie provinces prepare for another challenging day of battling the many wildfires in the region, several new evacuation orders have been issued for threatened communities in Alberta, including Chateh, located about 90 kilometres north of High Level, and the hamlet of Peers, located about two hours west of Edmonton.
There’s also a mandatory evacuation order in place for Hubert Lake Wildland Provincial Park, located about two hours north of Edmonton.
Meanwhile, a fire burning in B.C., close to the Alberta border, has prompted an evacuation alert to be put in place for the county of Grande Prairie — which means residents there need to be ready to leave within 30 minutes if needed.
Continued hot and dry conditions with temperatures in the mid to high 20s, heavy smoke and the possibility of some isolated showers are expected across all three prairie provinces on Friday — creating another difficult day for firefighters.
Both Saskatchewan and Manitoba have declared a province-wide state of emergency as wildfires continue to ravage the two provinces — forcing thousands of people from their homes — mostly in remote northern communities.
In Manitoba, 17,000 residents have been forced to flee the flames in recent days, including 6,000 in and around the northwest city of Flin Flon, where just a skeleton crew of emergency personnel and municipal officials remain.
Flin Flon Mayor George Fontaine is urging anyone who hasn’t evacuated to leave now.
“The prognosis is not good for today, because the winds are predicted to be in the wrong direction and quite forceful, and the fire that they’re pushing is massive, so we need to get out of the way,” said Fontaine.
Residents of the northern Saskatchewan community of Pelican Narrows are among the residents of 15 communities that have been forced to flee the growing number of wildfires.
Courtesy: Gilbert Linklater
In Saskatchewan, the flames have forced the evacuation of 4,000 people from 15 communities, including more than 2,000 in Pelican Narrows, located about five hours northeast of Saskatoon, near the Manitoba border.
Announcing the state of emergency on Thursday, Premier Scott Moe said there’s no end in sight to the crisis, describing it as “a very serious situation we are faced with.”
Moe also said firefighters are not counting on an immediate help from Mother Nature.
“Just looking ahead to the weather forecast, it just doesn’t look good, it looks like it is going to further deteriorate — there is no rain in the forecast,” said Moe.
The forecast high in Pelican Narrows on Friday was 20 C.
— With files from The Canadian Press.