LAC LA BICHE - Two out of control wildfires burning in the northeast and northwest regions of the Lac La Biche Forest are part of the recent Fire Restriction and Fire Advisory placed over the area.
Going into the weekend, one fire, burning near the Athabasca River about 60 kilometres northwest of Wandering River, had already burned up 1,270 hectares of land — about the size of 3,000 football fields. The other out of control fire had burned almost 200 hectares northeast of Conklin, 40 kilometres into the bush east of Highway 881.
The two fires are joined by five much smaller fires in the region, all listed as being under control. The smaller fires had burned a combined area of less than a hectare of land.
Advisory and Restriction
While much of the Lac La Biche County region within the Lac La Bihche Forest remains under a Fire Advisory, the hamlet of Lac La Biche and municipal land west into Athabasca County was put under a more prohibitive Fire Restriction on July 19.
The Fire Restriction suspends all existing fire permits, including for burning barrels and fireworks — but still allows for fires in engineered firepits for cooking and warming. The Fire Restriction is expected to remain in place through expected warm temperatures over the next several days. For those living or visiting the northeastern and eastern portions of the Lac La Biche Forest area — stretching to Cold Lake and north to Conklin — the Fire Advisory continues to allow campfires, backyard fires and portable propane firepits.
Going into the weekend, Alberta Wildfire crews were working on 31 active fires across Alberta, almost all of them are in the province's northeast. North of the Lac La Biche Forest boundaries, there were 10 wildfires reported as out of control or being held within 70 kilometres of Fort McMurray.
On Friday afternoon, there had been a total of 666 wildfires on provincial land across Alberta since the beginning of fire season at the end of March. Going into the new week, almost the entire province is under a fire advisory of some sort due to weeks of recent warm temperatures. The weather trend going into the new week for the Lakeland region calls for more sun with little precipitation, and daytime temperatures ranging between the mid and high 20s.
