All residents of Yellowhead County should be prepared to flee from wildfires, said the county mayor Friday afternoon.
“Every single person in Yellowhead County, whether they’re close to a fire right now or not, should have an evacuation plan and should have stuff packed up and ready to go,” said Wade Williams.
After only being allowed to return home Wednesday, people from the Alberta communities Evansburg, Wildwood, Lobstick, Hansonville were all told to flee again on Thursday because of a wildfire threat.
The area under mandatory evacuation starts at the Pembina River west to Range Road 101. The north border is Township Road 550 and the south border is Township Road 520, according to Alberta Emergency Alerts.
“Things went absolutely sideways yesterday,” said Williams.
There are a number of fires burning in the county that stretches from Evansburg – 90 kilometres west of Edmonton – to the boundaries of Jasper National Park.
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“We’ve got huge fires, we’ve got multiple fires and it’s a stressful time right now,” Williams said.
Two wildfires are threatening towns and hamlets. The Deep Creek fire was detected almost a week ago and is 2,400 hectares in size. It is located on both sides of Highway 22, north of Highway 16.
A smaller fire of 500 hectares is located nine kilometres southeast of Evansburg. It was classified as being held on May 3 but has seen increased activity over the last few days, according to Alberta Wildfire.
Williams said residents seem to be understanding of the re-evacuation amid the extreme conditions.
“We asked everybody to keep their stuff packed and be ready to go on 30 minutes’ notice,” said Williams.
“We hoped it would not happen — that was the worst case scenario and it happened.”
Between 1200 to 1400 people have left the Evansburg and Wildwood areas that are affected by these fires.
Another massive fire is burning in a more isolated area near Elk River. Burning 42 kilometres southeast of Edson, the fire was last measured at 19,000 hectares — an area larger than Red Deer.
Williams said Alberta Forestry will alert the County when the fire is within 12 hours of reaching a habited area.
“When it’s within ten hours, that’s when we’re going to kick off the evacuation for whatever areas that we feel necessary,” he said.
Eastbound traffic on Highway 16 is being detoured north on Highway 32 to 43 then back to Highway 16.
Road closures can be found on 511 Alberta.
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