Fort McMurray Forest Area Wildfire Update

The wildfire danger level is extreme in the Fort McMurray Forest Area.

A fire ban is in effect for the entire Fort McMurray Forest Area as of 4:00 PM today.

The multiple wildfire starts over the past 24 hours were all caused by lightning. This shows how dry the landscape is and how easily wildfires can start. Exercise extreme caution when recreating outdoors.

67% of wildfires are human-caused, everyone plays a role in preventing wildfires. Take the wildfire pledge to reduce wildfires and be entered to win a helicopter tour! Go to alberta.ca/wildfire-pledge.

Wildfire MCX002 - Cattail Complex

There are several wildfires that are all being managed together under MCX002. This includes MWF046, MWF047, MWF048, MWF051 and MWF054. All of these wildfires are classified as under control, except for MWF047. All of these wildfires were caused by lightning.

MWF047 is the largest wildfire that's included in this complex, it is estimated to be 28,000 ha in size and is classified as out of control. Today, this wildfire grew moderately towards the north-northeast.

This wildfire is still approximately 8 km northeast of industrial facilities, about 50 km northeast of Fort McKay and 70 km northeast of Fort McMurray.

There are 225 personnel currently working on this complex; including 110 firefighters, 30 incident management team members and support staff, and the rest include contractors and pilots. We have 18 helicopters, with most of them completing bucketing operations and 16 pieces of heavy equipment working on day or night operations.

Overnight operations continue each night and have crews working on completing the containment lines on the west and south edges of this wildfire.

Tomorrow, we expect a high of 30 degrees Celsius and a relative humidity of 25 per cent. We anticipate winds out of the west-southwest at 20 km/h, gusting up to 40 km/h. There's a 20 per cent chance of thundershowers, with less than one mm expected, which would make little to no impact on the wildfire. We're again seeing crossover conditions in the forecast, which is conducive to extreme fire behaviour. We expect another challenging firefighting day tomorrow.

Heavy smoke impacted operations today and many crews have been pulled off the line in certain locations for safety reasons. Smoke can reduce visibility to the point where it is no longer safe to fly. This is why we have fire behaviour analysts who can predict these changing conditions to keep everyone working safely.

A high level scan is planned for tonight and ongoing for the next few nights. It will help to identify perimeter growth and hotspots. These scans are crucial for prioritizing resources to the parts of the wildfire that require it most.

To see the most recent map available, click here. *For today's map, the size showing is from yesterday. The current size is 28,000 hectares.

(Helicopters land at the incident command post after operations were impacted by the smoke, July 10, 2024)

WILDFIRE SAFETY MESSAGES

DANGEROUS TREES | Be extra cautious near burnt areas and avoid forested areas that have been recently affected by wildfire. Hazards remain from deep ash pits, burning peat and falling trees or branches, especially if windy.

SMOKE | Lingering smoke may still be visible in some areas and in affected communities. Smoke inversions can trap air near the ground causing dangerous driving conditions and poor air quality. Please use extra caution when driving in smoky conditions. To see forecasted smoke, please visit FireSmoke.ca. If you have smoke related health concerns, please visit or contact Alberta 811.

DRONES | The use of recreational drones over wildfires in Alberta is dangerous, illegal and could result in an automatic court appearance for putting aircraft and people at risk. Please give firefighters the space they need to do their jobs safely. *Transport Canada.

Fire Ban banner

A fire ban is in effect as of 4 p.m. on July 10 in the entire Forest Protection Area of Alberta, including the Fort McMurray Forest Area, due to hot and dry conditions.

Cities, towns, villages and summer villages, as well as federal lands (such as national parks), are exempt from this ban. These jurisdictions have the authority to issue their own bans and may have complementary bans in place.

Under this fire ban:

All fire permits are suspended or cancelled.
No new fire permits will be issued.
Some allowances can be made for essential agricultural and industrial burning, if approved by a forest officer.

Prohibited:

All outdoor wood fires, including wood campfires on public land, private land, designated campgrounds, and backyard firepits
Barbeque charcoal briquettes
Fireworks and exploding targets

Allowed:

Propane/natural gas-powered appliances
Indoor wood fires inside a structure (such as a facility, building, tent or RV) and contained within a device with a chimney and spark arrestor
Open flame oil devices (such as deep fryers and tiki torches). All devices must be CSA approved and used per manufacturer’s standards.

We want to remind everyone that along with the rest of the forest area, there should be absolutely no wood campfires, charcoal barbeque, fireworks, or exploding targets in the Richardson backcountry. Conditions are very dry and hot and we want to reduce the chance of new wildfires starting.

If you see a wildfire, report it immediately by calling 310-FIRE.

The fire ban will remain in effect until conditions improve.

To see the fire ban factsheet, click here.

For information on the fire ban within Fort McMurray's Urban Service Area, click here.

For more information, visit Alberta Fire Bans.

Screenshot 2024-07-10 152023

See the forecasted fire danger map

FORT MCMURRAY WILDFIRE UPDATE

Since January 1, 2024 there have been 73 wildfires in the Fort McMurray Forest Area, burning a total of approximately 61,113 hectares (ha).

Today was a multi-start day for wildfires that were all caused by lightning. Many of these new starts are currently small (less than 5 ha) with the exception of MWF068.

MWF066, MWF069, MWF070, MWF071, MWF072, and MWF073. All of these wildfires were discovered today and were caused by lightning. They are all within close proximity of each other and are all located southwest of MWF017. Currently, they are all estimated to be between 0.1 ha and 3 ha and are classified as out of control. We had crews working on these fires today.

MWF068 was discovered today and is located approximately 4.5 km east of the High Level Forest Area border and 13 km north of the Slave Lake Forest Area border. It is classified as out of control and is estimated to be 100 ha in size. This wildfire was caused by lightning.

MWF067 was discovered today and is located approximately 4 km southwest of Gregoire Lake 176. It is classified as out of control and is currently 0.2 ha in size. This wildfire was caused by lightning. We currently have a crew working on this wildfire.

MWF065 was discovered July 9 and is located approximately 7 km southeast of Highway 63 and approximately 3.4 km from Maqua Lake. It is classified as out of control and is estimated to be 6 ha in size. This wildfire was caused by lightning. Today, we have 17 firefighters and one helicopter working on this wildfire.

MWF060 (Rabbit Lake Wildfire) was discovered July 5 and is located approximately 8 km east of the Slave Lake Forest Area border and the Fort McMurray Forest Area border. It is classified as out of control and is estimated to be 3774 ha in size. This wildfire was caused by lightning. Currently, we have 20 firefighters and eight helicopters working on this wildfire. A 20-person unit crew from Ontario is scheduled to arrive tonight to also start working on this wildfire tomorrow.

MWF043 was discovered on July 2 and is located approximately 18 km west of the Athabasca River and 56 km south of the southern Wood Buffalo National Park border. It is classified as being held and is estimated to be 32 ha in size. This wildfire was caused by lightning.

MWF045 was discovered on July 2 and is located approximately 23 km south of the Wood Buffalo National Park border. It is classified as being held and is estimated to be 2300 ha in size. This wildfire was caused by lightning.

MWF056 was discovered July 3 and is located approximately 41 km north of the cattail complex (MCX002). It is classified as being held and is estimated to be 29 ha in size. This wildfire was caused by lightning.

MWF057 was discovered July 3 and is located approximately 65 km east of Fort McKay and approximately 70 km northeast of Fort McMurray. It is classified as being held and is estimated to be 13.8 ha in size. This wildfire was caused by lightning.

MWF010 was discovered on April 21 and is located near the Birch Mountains. It is classified as under control at 7,976 ha in size. This means that this wildfire is contained and will be extinguished. This wildfire was human-caused.

MWF017 was discovered on May 9 and is located southwest of Fort McMurray. It is classified as under control at 18,593 ha. This means that this wildfire is contained and will be extinguished. The cause of this wildfire remains under investigation.

For up-to-date information on the current wildfire situation, visit Alberta Wildfire Status.

DRONES are not allowed to be flown within 5 nautical miles (or 9.3 kilometers) of a wildfire.

If you fly a drone within this distance of a wildfire, it immediately halts firefighting operations because it is not safe to be flying with drones in the air. The penalty for interfering with wildfire control operations can land you a court appearance, for more information go to the Government of Alberta website.
For more information from Transport Canada about drones near wildfires, visit Transport Canada's website.

310-FIRE flames trees

Over the past few days, we have had more than 20 new wildfire starts and most of them were caused by lightning.

Now that we are experiencing more lightning, this is a good reminder of how essential it is for everyone to report any wildfires they see in the forest to 310-FIRE.

The sooner a potential wildfire is reported, the sooner we can get a crew out to assess and start working on it and send more resources if required. This is critical for ensuring an efficient response to any wildfires that start.

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