A 38-year-old civilian pilot is dead after his water bomber crashed while he was helping fight an out-of-control grass fire 40 kilometers north of Cold Lake.
Investigators were able to locate the crash site and body of the deceased pilot late Friday evening.
The pilot and plane had been under contract to Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD) and was in the area to assist in fighting the fire.
The out of control state of the fire made it difficult for investigators to visit the crash site immediately, however the body of the pilot was secured and transported to the Edmonton Medical Examiners office on Monday.
As of Tuesday emergency personnel were still attempting to control the large forest fire, which grew to over 17,000 hectares from Friday afternoon to Tuesday morning, out on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range.
The fire quickly engulfed 1,000 hectares of land on Friday afternoon, grew to 4,200 hectares by Saturday night, before rapidly expanding to over 10,000 hectares on Monday.
Alberta Wildfire reports that a crew of over 200 workers and firefighters, along with 19 helicopters, six dozers, four water trucks and two large fire engines are being used to battle the blaze.
Work in the area came to a halt on Friday night as Cenovus evacuated approximately 1,700 workers from their Foster Creek site, which sits about 30 kilometers south of the fire. They later shut down their operations and flew out remaining staff by helicopter.
CNRL followed suit and evacuated their Primrose site and temporarily shut-in some crude oil production operations as a precautionary move Saturday morning.
Personnel at the Air Weapons Range were also sent home and all of the gates to the site were locked.
Alberta Wildfire officials expected the fire to continue to spread over the course of the week given the extreme weather conditions.
Hot and dry temperatures are expected to be in the Cold Lake area for the majority of the week with no precipitation in the seven-day forecast.
