Photo Courtesy Alberta Wildfire

By Tanner Smith

Wildfires

County of Grande Prairie Fire Chief shares an update

May 16, 2024 | 1:21 PM

The County of Grande Prairie has announced some changes to the evacuation zone near Teepee Creek, thanks to the current damp weather conditions and the resources on hand.

Fire Chief Trevor Grant says the Teepee Creek Wildfire is now listed as being held and no longer expected to grow past the fire boundaries. Crews will continue to work and monitor the area.

“We’ve been actioning that since Friday. We had lots of heavy equipment and resources both county and (Alberta Wildfire) working that. It did jump the Smoky River, so it did end up in the MD of Greenview as well, so we were having to work on both sides of the river. We’ve been working really hard to get a perimeter and make sure that there’s no threat of any spread outside that perimeter.”

This wasn’t the only blaze crews were battling over the weekend. They also fought the Vahalla wildfire as well as two residential fires, all of which are now under control.

Chief Grant says this year, thanks to support from the County of Grande Prairie, Alberta Wildfire, and neighbouring fire services, crews are capable of dealing with these multi-fire situations, without support from “spontaneous volunteers,” but the offer is “appreciated.”

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“You know we have engaged a lot more local resources. It’s more of the spontaneous volunteer folks that it becomes more of a challenge. I know we have been talking through the GPREP municipality group about some options around that, it’s just we haven’t been able to put something into place.”

“We appreciate everybody that wants to help, but if we can do our jobs, it makes our lives a lot easier, and we can get the incident mitigated a lot faster, not having to deal with people that don’t have the training or experience.”

He adds, “our number one priority is life safety, and that’s the safety of the public and the responders.”

Any residents worried about their property or would just like to do more to protect their community from wildfires; Chief Grant has a couple suggestions.

“Research and understand FireSmart, and FireSmart principles around their home. Being able to have a defensible space for our firefighters makes all the difference. If we can get in there and get between the fire and the home, and have a place that’s safe for us to protect the house, it’s really important.”

For residents looking to do more to protect their community, Grant suggests signing up as a volunteer firefighter. All county fire stations are always looking for people and will provide residents with the proper training and experience they need.

Chief Grant also asked residents to do their part by reporting any fire they see to 911, before it gets out of control.

Currently, the special air quality statement in place for the northwestern Alberta area has been lifted, however, any residents residing in the new evacuation zone are still asked to be prepared to evacuate within one hour.