Roughly 8,000 residents of the town of Edson, Alta., will be allowed to return home as of 6 p.m. Thursday.
“Even as we lift this evacuation order, I want to stress we are on four-hour evacuation alert. Please be ready to leave the area if conditions worsen,” said Edson chief administrative officer Christine Beveridge.
“Wildfires are unpredictable and there’s a very real possibility that we’ll have to evacuate again.
“This fire is like holding a tiger by the tail. We cannot turn our backs on it. This is the reality,” she said.
The wildfire is burning just 1.5 kilometres away from the town. It’s more than 300,000 hectares in size, which is four and a half times the size of the city of Edmonton, Beveridge said.
The evacuation order for parts of Yellowhead County was lifted Wednesday evening. The evacuation order for the remaining area of Yellowhead County will also be lifted at 6 p.m. on Thursday.
That means residents in the area west of Range Road 114, south of Highway 16 (including the Town of Edson) to Range Road 183, north to Township Road 540 to Range Road 190 to Township Road 550, south to Highway 16, including the Hamlet of Marlboro and Millers Lake, continuing west along Highway 16 to Range Road 213 south to Township 520 and east back to Range Road 114 can all return home Thursday evening.
The county also will remain under a four-hour evacuation alert for the foreseeable future.
“From Yellowhead County’s perspective, this is day number 48,” said CAO Luc Mercier. “We’ve been fighting, with Alberta Forestry, the fires in the area for a long time.
“The fires will be here for a while.”
Fire officials have said the region can expect 10-14 days of a little bit of a reprieve,” Mercier said.
“While the rain has helped, there’s been a lot of tactics,” Beveridge added, explaining fire crews are using dozer guarding, bucketing and hot spot monitoring.”
She said five millimetres of rain equals about one day of reprieve. Since the area has received about 50 mm in the last couple days, “that buys us, potentially, up to 10 days.
“That means firefighters can get in and action those hot spots we’ve spoken about and continue building guards.”
Yellowhead County Mayor Wade Williams said senior government officials confirmed to him that there will be fire crews in the area “for weeks to come.”
“These fires are nowhere near out,” he stressed.
For residents considering returning, Edson Mayor Kevin Zahara said medical services are extremely limited.
“There’s a lack of medical access at this current point in time.”
He said there will be one basic life support ambulance as of noon Thursday. There is no open emergency department, Zahara said.
“Basic EMS is being arranged. AHS is working to set up an emergency department but there’s no timing yet,” Beveridge added.
“Other services are working hard to either open tonight or tomorrow morning, including pharmacy, groceries, gas stations, etc.”
Buses will be at the Expo Centre in Edmonton at 4 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday to transport residents home. The reception centre will close on Sunday.
Highway 47 will remain closed for several days, Mercier said, until Alberta Transportation gets the go-ahead to open the highway. He said the fire burned about 15 kilometres along the highway and some power lines need to be fixed or replaced.