Firefighters trapped in remote northern Alberta as wildfires rage across the province

Firefighters battling a blaze in a remote northern Alberta town became trapped Thursday as raging wildfires closed in on communities across the province, forcing thousands to flee.

Fires raging in central and northern Alberta grew increasingly volatile Thursday, forcing a new wave of evacuees to flee to safety as baking heat, severe thunderstorms and battering winds fanned the flames.

According to Alberta’s Minister of Forestry and Parks Todd Loewen, eight wildland firefighters were forced to shelter in place and wait for rescue as flames moved toward Chipewyan Lake, about 450 kilometres north of Edmonton.

In a statement posted to social media around midnight, Loewen said the firefighters were responding to a wildfire when they temporarily lost radio contact just after 8 p.m.

They had to take cover in the community overnight, Loewen said.

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One team was sheltering at the fire station while the other is safe at the local school, which was designated as the community’s emergency shelter, Loewen said.

We are working on a plan to extract all eight personnel using NVIS (night vision), though earlier attempts were limited by heavy smoke, Loewen wrote.

There are preliminary indications that there is some damage to structures in the community. At this time, the full extent remains unknown.

As of Friday morning, it remained unclear if the firefighters had been rescued.

Loewen said updates on the crews awaiting extraction would be provided as they become available. CBC News is waiting on additional details from officials with Alberta Wildfire, the province’s wildland firefighting agency.

Chipewyan Lake, which is only accessible by a single industry access road, was evacuated Thursday.

The community, home to around 75 people, was evacuated in May 2019 and in May 2023.

One is approaching from the southwest, and as of Thursday afternoon, had burned more than 20,000 hectares. The other is coming in from the north at more than 3,000 hectares.

A band of fires is burning across the remote region of northern Alberta which has put a swath of communities — both remote hamlets and First Nations — under evacuation, including Red Earth Creek, Loon River First Nation, Peerless Lake and Trout Lake.

More than 50 wildfires are burning across the province Friday morning, nearly 30 are burning out of control. A hot, dry spell has strained efforts to contain them. Firefighters have battled increasingly extreme and unpredictable fire behaviour in recent days.

New evacuation orders

Dene Tha’ First Nation issued an evacuation order for residents of Chateh, a community about 660 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. As of Thursday, an out-of-control fire about 20 kilometres southwest of the community had grown to about 1,730 hectares.

Shortly after 5 p.m., Yellowhead County issued an evacuation order to people living around the hamlet of Peers, about 165 kilometres west of Edmonton.

As of Thursday afternoon, a wildfire was burning out of control about one kilometre south of the community.

Around 7 p.m., Westlock County told some of its residents to flee because of a fire in Hubert Lake Wildland Provincial Park, which spanned 900 hectares.

This article is republished from RCI.