LAKELAND - Alberta Wildfire is going into the new week with 18 active forest fires in the Lac La Biche Forest area that stretching from Cold Lake to Athabasca and north to the Janvier area. Several of those fires are a small clustered group near Janvier. The largest fire is a holdover fire from the 2022 season about 70 kilometres northwest of Wandering River near the Athabasca River.
The fire hazard going into the week is set at "Moderate", say Alberta Wildfire officials.
Lac La Biche County's Regional Fire Chief John Kokotilo says the hazard will likely rise across the Lakeland in the coming week as little of the forecast precipitation will do much to dampen very dry ground conditions across the region
"It is extremely dry... the little rain that we have had the past few days has helped a little, but a few days of warm windy weather will put us back in the “hot seat," said Kokotilo, who is also the municipality's manager of Protective Services. "Noticeably... there is very little standing water and the little moisture that we do have is quickly being soaked up."
The dry spring conditions have already resulted in 23 wildland fire calls for the Lac La Biche County Fire Services that cover an an area that runs to the Municipal District of Bonnyville Border to the east, Smoky Lake County to the south, Athabasca County to the west and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo to the north.
It could be the start of a busy fire season for municipal crews, said Kokotilo last Thursday after two of the county's fire halls responded to a reported grass fire in a Highway 55 ditch near Rich Lake.
"We do have concern and that concern will grow if we do not receive some preventative moisture in the upcoming weeks," he said, calling this one of the driest season starts he can recall. "From my experience with spring thaw in previous years – this seems one of the driest that I can remember."
The fire near Rich Lake was quickly contained, with the assistance of a passing motorists who extinguished most of the small flames before fire crews arrived. A firefighter in a Lac La Biche County rapid response fire truck took care of any remaining hot spots, keeping the small blaze from spreading into nearby fields and forests.
Kokotilo said public education about wildfire dangers has helped in recent years. The municipality's own Fire Smart program — which offers education and services to residents to reduce fire hazards, is the best subscribed program of its kind in the province.
"Our Fire Smart program, fire permitting program, and advertising campaign, I believe, has provided education and insight to wildfire and consequences," he said.
While the programming is there, so too are the constant dangers. The fire chief reminds anyone who sees a fire to contact 911 immediately. The location of the fire and its severity will trigger responses from nearby municipal fire departments or provincial wildfire crews. Kokotilo said municipalities throughout the Lakeland work closely with Alberta Forestry, Parks and Tourism when it comes to firefighting in the urban zones and the "green zones" of provincial parkland and forests.
For more details on the programming offered with the Fire Smart campaign in the Lakeland area, go to the Protective Services information pages on the Lac La Biche County website, or follow the links in the digital version of this story at www.lakelandtoday.ca
