An evacuation order remained in effect Monday for an area near a northwestern Alberta city, but officials said the wildfire that prompted it is about 90-per cent contained.
Emergency officials in the Grande Prairie region said crews are optimistic the fire southwest of the city could soon be classified as being held, meaning it won’t be expected to grow beyond its boundaries.
That said, officials also said on Monday the relative humidity would create crossover conditions and may challenge the progress made on Sunday.
“There is no chance of precipitation today,” the Monday update said.
Crossover conditions are the point at which the relative humidity is less than or equal to the temperature and this is an indicator of extreme burning potential, according to Alberta Wildfire.
The affected fire area in the County of Grande Prairie includes a mix of agricultural land, forested terrain, Crown land, and grassland. A fire ban is in effect.
The Grande Prairie Regional Emergency Partnership reminded area residents Monday afternoon off-highway vehicles (OHVs) are not permitted in any areas under evacuation order.
It’s a precarious time in Alberta’s wildfire season, when a warm and/or windy day could lead to fires spreading out of control, as was seen this past weekend north of Edmonton near Redwater and a few weeks ago east of Edmonton, when a blaze damaged buildings at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village.
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An Alberta Emergency Alert was issued on Sunday, ordering people in part of the county of Grande Prairie to evacuate.
Officials say about 100 evacuees have been registered, and no structures have been destroyed.
The fire is about one square kilometre in size.
About 60 firefighters are extinguishing hot spots while two Alberta Wildfire helicopters are conducting bucketing operations.
It’s dry across northern Alberta, where the province said the fire danger level was quite high.
Alberta Wildfire has jurisdiction over the forest protection area, which encompasses most of northern Alberta’s boreal forest, as well as the western foothills and mountains outside the national parks.
On Monday, the fire risk in those 10 regions was either high or very high and Alberta Wildfire said if a blaze were to break out, high-intensity fire is expected and it could be challenging to suppress.
The regions include the rural areas around Calgary, Edson, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie, Slave Lake, High Level, Peace River, Lac La Biche and Rocky Mountain House.
There are fire bans and restrictions in place across much of the province, both issued by individual municipalities and the province.
As of Monday afternoon, fires were banned or restricted in dozens of provincial parks and communities.
—with files from The Canadian Press
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