New wildfires detected in Grande Prairie Forest Area

Jul 15, 2021 | 5:16 AM

This story has been updated from its original version.

New wildfires have been discovered in the Grande Prairie Forest Area, with a total of three fires currently considered out of control.

The largest fire burning in the area is located approximately 100 kilometres south of the City of Grande Prairie near Nose Mountain Road. The fire has burned 25 hectares, and Alberta Wildfire says heavy equipment has completed a guard around the fire.

The fires highlighted in red are deemed out of control, while green denotes fires which are under control (Photo: Alberta Wildfire)

There are five firefighters, a helicopter and a water delivery vehicle working to control this blaze.

Another wildfire is burning out of control further east of the Nose Mountain fire, about five kilometres north of Deep Valley Cabin. This fire has burned 2.5 hectares and there are 18 firefighters, a helicopter and water delivery vehicles attending to this blaze. Heavy equipment is also working to complete a guard around the fire.

The cause of both fires remains under investigation, according to Alberta Wildfire.

There are currently seven active fires in the Grande Prairie Forest Area, with the other five fires combined burning less than one hectare of forest.

Since March 1 there have been 78 wildfires burning over 96 hectares in the Grande Prairie Forest Area.

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by Shaun Penner