A week of cool, wet temperatures has made a significant difference to Alberta’s wildfire situation, with most recent statistics showing fewer active fires and none burning out of control.
Alberta government and wildfire officials provided their regular weekly update this morning.
As of Thursday morning, the province’s wildfire dashboard showed 30 active wildfires in the Alberta forest protection area, down from 44 one week ago. Twenty of these fires had been started in the previous calendar year.
As well, Alberta Wildfire is assisting, but is not the lead agency, on seven other fires that are not in Alberta’s forest protection areas.
The Fort McMurray fire, which forced about 6,600 residents of the northeastern community to be evacuated on May 14, is classed as being held.
On Saturday, the evacuation order was lifted and residents were allowed to return home.