An evacuation order was issued for Grande Prairie County No. 1 Friday night.
An Alberta Emergency Alert was issued for the county at 8:46 p.m. due to a wildfire four kilometres east of the Town of Teepee Creek, near Range Road 31 and Township Road 740.
Residents of Grande Prairie County No. 1 were told to travel north to Township Road 742 and west to Highway 733.
Evacuees should register at the Pomeroy Hotel and Conference Centre in Grande Prairie at 11633 100 Street.
The fire was one of two burning out of control in the Grande Prairie Forest Area as of 9 p.m., with the other located 13 kilometres northwest of Valhalla.
On Thursday, officials said a lack of rain in northern Alberta was driving higher fire risks in the region.
“They just didn’t get the precipitation,” Alberta Wildfire spokesperson Christie Tucker said in the weekly provincial wildfire update Thursday morning in Edmonton.
“We know in the short term this weekend, we are expecting dry conditions, we’re expecting warm conditions, we are looking at winds in a couple of areas that could provide additional danger, and so we are increasing our caution for this weekend, particularly in those areas that didn’t get as much rain around the Peace and Grande Prairie region,” Tucker explained.
As of 9 p.m., there were 47 wildfires burning in Alberta. Twenty-four of those were carried over from 2023, and four were classified as out of control.
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Diego Romero