Dozens forced from northern Alberta community after fire threatens key road

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This article was published 19/07/2024 (795 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

EDMONTON – Dozens of residents of a northern Alberta hamlet were out of their homes Friday as a wildfire threatened their community.

The province said 89 residents of Chipewyan Lake registered at an evacuation centre after they were ordered to leave a day earlier.

“There’s no immediate threat to the community, but the wildfire is threatening the only exit route out,” Stephen Lacroix, with the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, told a news conference.

Residents have been moved to hotels in Slave Lake and Wabasca as well as that town’s sports centre.

Terah Yellowknee of the Municipal District of Opportunity said the fire remains out of control and is burning towards the community.

Chipewyan Lake is 450 kilometres north of Edmonton.

Lacroix said evacuation alerts for the Janvier Hamlet and Janvier 194 communities, located south of Fort McMurray, remain in place.

He said it’s important for residents in all communities under an alert to be prepared to leave their homes at any moment.

Christie Tucker, a spokesperson for Alberta Wildfire, said 377 new fires have started this month.

She said crews are concerned more could erupt over the weekend due to the heat wave hitting Alberta. Lightning is expected in some areas.

The conditions could “lead to extreme fire behaviour or changes in existing wildfire already burning on the landscape,” she said.

She said a fire ban remains in place in Alberta’s forest protection area, a region spanning from the southern Rocky Mountains into the north.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 19, 2024.