Alberta wildfires are taking a positive turn

Weekend campers will be happy about this one.

Humidity, temperature and light winds have lead the Alberta Emergency Management Agency to lift the province-wide fire ban, although there are still some regional bans in place.

By Friday afternoon, better weather had helped the hundreds of firefighters dispatched, mainly in northern Alberta, to cut the out-of-control fires in half to five.

Scott Long, AEMA executive director, said the out-of-control wildfire at the Cold Lakes Weapons Range is still growing. It’s estimated at 27,500 hectares, larger than Cold Lake itself. One day earlier the fire had burnt 20,000 hectares.

The nearby Cenovus and CNRL oil and gas sites remain evacuated, but Long said the winds are now blowing the blaze away from critical infrastructure.

“I’m happy to say that the fire guards that we have in place between the fire and critical infrastructure remain effective and were improved overnight. We expect minor growth of the fire size may occur over the next day, but that growth is expected to be, again, moving away from critical infrastructure,” Long said.

Out of 43,000 hectares burning in Alberta this fire season, more than half is at the Cold Lake Weapons site.

Long said there is still a wildfire threat in the province, but — as of Friday — the number of fires had decreased by one to 41.

More than 270 firefighters from outside Alberta are helping out including crews from Ontario, BC, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and Parks Canada.

An Air quality advisory remains for northern Alberta and the Edmonton area but has been lifted for Lethbridge.

View the original content and more from this author here: http://ift.tt/1d5LLEx

from critical infrastructure alliance http://ift.tt/1GbWyKB
via IFTTT