Courtesy of Alberta Wildfire:
HIGH LEVEL FOREST AREA WILDFIRE UPDATE| MAY 19, 2023 AS OF 2:00 PM
There are five wildfires in the High Level Forest Area. Of these fires, two are classified as Out of Control (OC) and three are Under Control (UC). To see a map of the wildfires in the High Level Forest Area and across the province please click here.
Firefighters, aircraft, and heavy equipment have been working in conjunction with communities, county and municipal firefighting services as aggressively as possible to make progress on wildfires in the High Level Forest Area. Despite all of this hard work, there remains uncontained wildfire perimeter and fire behavior forecasts indicate that there will be continued growth on the wildfires throughout the region.
Firefighters gather at the Town of Rainbow Lake Fire Hall for their early morning safety briefing before heading out to work on the Long Lake wildfire. May 18, 2023.
THE LONG LAKE FIRE | HWF036 | MAY 19, 2023 AS OF 2:00 PM
This fire is located in the vicinity of the Town of Rainbow Lake. This wildfire is classified as out of control (OC) with a last recorded size of 118,403 hectares.
This wildfire remains approximately 13 km from the community of Chateh. Firefighters and heavy equipment are working hard on securing existing fire guards west of the community of Chateh.
Our top priority is the safety of the people in the Town of Rainbow Lake, the community of Chateh, and oil and gas and energy infrastructure. Wildland firefighter crews and wildland urban interface crews continue to ensure protection of the structures within the town and community. Firefighters will continue to action hotspots around the Town of Rainbow Lake and ensure all hotspots are fully extinguished.
The Incident Management Team (IMT) is providing the continued support for restoration of critical infrastructure and communications systems in the Town of Rainbow Lake. Damage was done to powerlines, resulting in a lack of power within the Town of Rainbow Lake, community of Chateh and the hamlet of Zama City. In addition, there are road closures in the area. Please visit 511 for the most updated travel information.
There are 92 firefighters, 10 helicopters and heavy equipment working on the Long Lake Fire. Structural protection crews will continue protecting structures within the area as the wildfire situation evolves. These crews continue to patrol the Town of Rainbow Lake, throughout the day and night to spot any hotspots and excursions within the town. Wildland Urban Interface crews have deployed to the community of Chateh to work on structural protection operations, Firesmart work around homes and operationalize the defense plan.
The Town of Rainbow Lake has an evacuation order in place.
Dene Tha First Nation has an evacuation order in place for the community of Chateh.
Please stay informed by downloading the Alberta Emergency Alert mobile app or by visiting their website.
Weather Forecast | Long Lake Fire (HWF036)
The Incident Management Team has a dedicated Fire Behaviour Analyst and therefore the weather forecast will be fire area specific.
Today smoke coverage is variable from both the Long Lake fire, fires from central Alberta and eastern British Columbia. Morning inversions are not expected to last beyond 8:00 a.m., and the overnight RH recovery for today is not expected to exceed 60%.
Today the forecast is as follows; a temperature of 25 degrees, a relative humidity of 25 percent and winds northeast 20 km/h gusting 40 km/h. As a forecasted cold front passes on Saturday and Sunday winds are expected to shift from the east 10 km/h.
Crews set up a pump on the Peace River along the Paskwa Fire perimeter, May 18, 2023
THE PASKWA FIRE | HWF030 | MAY 19, 2023 AS OF 2:00 PM
The Paskwa fire is located in the community of Fox Lake and was detected on May 2, 2023. This fire is classified as Out of Control (OC) and the last recorded size is 61,452 hectares. The fire is 1km inside the Wood Buffalo National Park boundary and is approximately 8km from the community of Garden River.
Today, crews will continue work to secure the northeast perimeter of the fire working along the retardant line on the flank closest to the community of Garden River
Work continues in the community of Fox Lake to create safe conditions to allow for re-entry, beginning with temporary access and escorted community visits. The Incident Management Team is working closely with the Little Red River Cree Nation to develop a timeline for when these visits may be able to occur. Access to the Little Red River cultural heritage site will also be facilitated once escorted visits to the community begin.
Crews will continue to assess and remove dangerous trees in the community of Fox Lake as well as continuing to create an extinguished perimeter of approximately 30 metres around every structure, this objective will take time given the number of structures in the community.
Last night a specialized drone equipped with infrared cameras scanned the community of Fox Lake. The IMT will soon have access to maps showing detailed locations of the remaining hot spots in this area, which will help crews locate them for extinguishment. The drone will be requested again tonight for a scan of the southwest perimeter.
ATCO crews are also working in the community to restore power and repair damaged lines.
There are 99 firefighters, 8 helicopters, and heavy equipment working on the Paskwa fire. Air tanker support is available as requested.
Little Red River Cree Nation has an evacuation order in place for the community of Fox Lake. The community of Garden River remains on an evacuation alert. For information regarding the evacuation, please stay informed by visiting the Little Red River Cree Nation’s Facebook page.
Weather Forecast | Paskwa Fire (HWF030)
The Incident Management Team has a dedicated Fire Behaviour Analyst and therefore the weather briefing will be fire area specific. Hot and dry conditions continue with no significant rain in the forecast. Today the forecast is as follows, a temperature of 28 degrees and a relative humidity of 20 percent. Southeast wind in the morning that will switch to north wind of 20-35 km/h with gusts of 50 km/h at midday due to a passing cold front.
