Fire west of Barrhead destroys 6 homes, damages over a dozen

Residents of a rural area northwest of Edmonton were ordered out of their homes as an out-of-control fire set several properties on fire.

More than a dozen properties were damaged, and on six of those lots, the home was destroyed. On Friday, charred foundations were all that was left.

An Alberta Emergency Alert was issued just before 5 p.m. Thursday in the County of Barrhead, which issued a state of local emergency due to the wildfire.

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The county said there are structural fires in two subdivisions around Thunder Lake, which is approximately 20 km west of Barrhead.

The first order to evacuate was for people in the Summerlea subdivision, who were allowed to return to their homes about two hours later.

Then at about 5:45 p.m., the evacuation alert was expanded to the Thunder Lake subdivision — south of the Thunder Lake Provincial Park boat launch — where the county said there were structural fires.

The fire was outside of the province’s jurisdiction (the forest protection area) but Alberta Wildfire sent help to assist the county.

Erik Bay has more on the damage in the video above.