Residents of Sandy Beach, Alta., say they are on edge as a wildfire burns down homes and a local officials issue a state of emergency.
The wildfire alert is in effect for anyone along Lake Shore Drive on the east side of Sandy Lake.
According to a Facebook post by Sturgeon County, the fire has claimed at least three homes and damaged a fourth. No injuries have been reported.
More than 60 firefighters were on scene from multiple jurisdictions, including Morinville, Alexander First Nation, Parland County, and Lac Ste. Anne County.
“Arriving on scene, they found cabins fully engulfed in flames, which were also spreading to trees and surrounding grass”, Chad Moore, Sturgeon County fire chief and manager of protective services, told Global News on Sunday morning.
“Last night, (crews) finished a dozer guard wrapping around a fire and returning this morning to do a full mop up and see if it’s officially out,” he added.
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The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but Moore said it started in one residence and spread to another.
He confirmed the fire is now contained, but added there are fears the fire situation could change.
Environment Canada is forecasting winds from the northwest at about 40 km/h on Sunday with gusts up to 60 km/h.
Fire officials say that a change in wind direction could spread to Lakeshore Drive and could prompt an evacuation alert.
A fire ban was issued Saturday at around 5:30 p.m. A state of local emergency was declared for the area around 9:30 p.m. that night.
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Jonathan Bodnar witnessed the fire.
“The flame actually jumped over and began escalating the smoke into the air and blackened really badly,” he said.
Bodnar also said he’s grateful for the quick response from fire crews.
“Everyone is going to think twice about burning stuff in the backyard. Fires will be limited here for a while.”
Sandy Beach is located about 65 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
Looking at the pictures it looks like the cabins were right next to a forest. When will people realize that you need a gap… a fire break between the forest and buildings
dont understand how wilf fires even exist. a quick google search will tell you we have had cloud seeding tech dince the 60s. we can make rsin no problem. heck dubia was regularly making rain til the war destroyed tve weather “research” station. cloud seeding is real.
I seriously question the intelligence of some people in this country!
See below comment. This kind of headline is deceptive. If you need help it should read. structure fire spread to neighbouring home causing a wildfire.
Your title says ‘wildfire’ when it is actually a ‘housefire’ that spread to other buildings.
Titles like this will bring on unnecessary fire bans. My branch pile is almost free of ice – leftovers I was not allowed to burn last year because of bans. It will take a week or 2 to dry out enough to burn…