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.

Hangingstone Provincial Recreation Area and Richardson Wildland Park have been closed to the public effective immediately.

A lightning storm came through the Fort McMurray Area last night that caused a number of new wildfires. Use 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 and MWF077. All of these wildfires were caused by lightning.

MWF077 was added to this complex. It was discovered yesterday and is classified as out of control. Currently, it is estimated to be 4,500 ha in size. This wildfire has been showing extreme fire behaviour yesterday and we saw significant growth.

MWF047 is the largest wildfire that's included in this complex and is classified as out of control. After smoke cleared, we were able to conduct a more accurate measurement and it is now estimated to be 67,000 ha in size. This wildfire also showed extreme fire behaviour yesterday and we saw significant growth towards the east-northeast, away from industrial facilities.

At this time, this wildfire is approximately 8 km northeast of industrial facilities, about 50 km northeast of Fort McKay and 70 km northeast of Fort McMurray.

There are 250 personnel currently working on this complex, including 142 firefighters, 26 incident management team members, as well as support staff, contractors and pilots. We have 18 helicopters and 16 pieces of heavy equipment working this wildfire.

Today, crews will continue to work along the west and south perimeter. We expect today's operations to be challenged by heavy smoke in the air. Helicopters will continue to bucket, as long as they have the required visibility to do so. Heavy smoke typically increases the relative humidity, which helps to keep fire behaviour lower.

Last night, an additional 5.2 km of dozer guard was completed north of the Firebag River along the western perimeter.

Today, we expect a high of 20 degrees Celsius and a relative humidity of 35 per cent. Winds again will be out of the west at 25 km/h, gusting up to 45 km/h. Winds are expected to decrease around 5 p.m. to approximately 20 km/h, gusting up to 30 km/h. There's a 20 per cent chance of thundershowers, however only 1-2 mm is predicted. If we receive this rain, it will make no impact on the wildfire.

Today, crossover conditions are not predicted, however strong winds will likely lead to some fire growth.

A scan was completed again last night and identified fire growth and hotspots. These scans are crucial for prioritizing resources to the parts of the wildfire that require it most.

See the most recent map available.

(Heavy equipment operators continue to work overnight on MWF047 where it's safe, July 10, 2024)

Wildfire MCX003 - Algar Lake Complex

All of the wildfires in this complex have now all merged into one wildfire, MWF069, which is a combined size of approximately 9,000 ha. These merged wildfires were discovered on July 10, were caused by lightning and are classified as out of control. This merged wildfire is located approximately:

11 km west of Highway 63
40 km southwest of Fort McMurray

Yesterday, extreme fire behaviour was witnessed on this complex and we saw significant growth.

Currently, we have 78 personnel working on this complex, which are mostly firefighters. Tomorrow, an incident management team is scheduled to arrive from Ontario. We also have 14 helicopters working on extinguishing hotspots and completing bucketing operations.

Firefighters are working in strategic locations along the perimeter to try and contain this wildfire.

Yesterday, a structure protection team worked to protect critical infrastructure near the complex.

This complex has created a large smoke column which is visible in Fort McMurray and surrounding areas. Download the 511 app to stay up to date on any road closures in Alberta.

(Algar Lake Complex showed extreme fire behaviour today, July 11, 2024)

SMOKE

Very heavy smoke is forecasted to impact Fort McMurray, Fort McKay and other nearby communities for today and the next few days. Please use caution when driving and be careful to limit your time outside if possible.

To see forecasted smoke, please visit FireSmoke.ca. If you have smoke related health concerns, please visit or contact Alberta 811.

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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.

See the fire ban factsheet.

More information on the fire ban for Fort McMurray's Urban Service Area

For more information, visit Alberta Fire Bans.

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See the forecasted fire danger map

FORT MCMURRAY WILDFIRE UPDATE

Since January 1, 2024 there have been 79 wildfires in the Fort McMurray Forest Area, burning a total of approximately 70,775 hectares (ha).

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.

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 4750 ha in size. This wildfire was caused by lightning.

MWF067 was discovered on July 10 and is located approximately 4 km southwest of Gregoire Lake 176. It is classified as being held and is currently 0.2 ha in size. This wildfire was caused by lightning.

MWF068 was discovered on July 10 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 being held and is estimated to be 100 ha in size. This wildfire was caused by lightning.

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 2,300 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 400 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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