A huge wildfire on the Alberta-NWT border has held, but warm temperatures continue to pose a challenge for first responders.
Fort Smith deputy mayor Jay MacDonald gave an update on the situation during a press conference on Aug. 22.
“All of our volunteers and first responders are home working tireless day and night to ensure our community is protected,” he said. “Our first priority as a mayor and council is getting our community through this and making sure people can come home to Fort Smith as soon as possible.
“We are really supportive of all of the efforts and we want to ensure that we thank all the first responders that have been working at this, especially to our own Fort Smith residents who are volunteering and supporting this effort.”
MacDonald said anyone who is still in the community and is not involved in the fire suppression effort should leave.
Because the humidity is lower than the temperature, which has averaged 27 C throughout the day, extreme fire conditions are expected. Winds have gusted up to 30 kilometres per hour.
The Wood Buffalo complex is currently 430,498 hectares in size and remains out of control. It is roughly 4 km south of Fort Smith and 6 km south of Fort Fitzgerald, Alta. There is currently 277 personnel, 24 helicopters and 255 pieces of heavy equipment combating this fire.
”In Fort Smith, the old community guard has been refurbished to be a 15 blade wide (100 m) guard that has been scraped down to mineral soil, extending from West 40 to Pine Lake Road, just south of Border Town,” reads an notice from the NWT Wildfire update website. “Dozers have constructed airport guards extending south, north and west of the airport, in addition to extensive protection work down around town.
“In Thebacha, helicopters were able to control a spot fire that jumped north of Highway 5 and crossed Connie’s Road. Structure work has been completed and sprinklers were turned on yesterday. Approximately 10 km of dozer guard has been completed along the fire line south of Thebacha and Highway 5 junction, working east towards Pine Lake Road.
“In the Bell Rock subdivision, a dozer guard has been established around the subdivision on the south side of Highway 5, with an additional dozer guard established on the west side of Bell Rock. Structure protection has been completed and crews strengthened the containment line that is south of Bell Rock, and will be continuing this work east towards Fort Smith.”
Fort Smith and Fort Fitzgerald remain under a state of local emergency and evacuation order. Officials stress it is not safe to return to either community and anyone who attempts to will be turned back by road blocks.