What you need to know to stay up-to-date on Alberta wildfires
CBC
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Wildfire season is well underway in Alberta, with some communities already being forced to evacuate and provincial government officials implementing fire restrictions.
Last year marked a record wildfire year, burning more than 2.2 million hectares in Alberta. But drought helped several dozen fires survive throughout the winter and has left various regions even drier than a year ago, resulting in an early wildfire season.
The Alberta government introduced fire restrictions for forest protection areas on April 24, as drought conditions bring extreme wildfire risk. Emergency management officials urged people to be cautious in the weeks ahead.
This article contains information and publicly available resources so people can prepare in advance for wildfires and stay updated about potential hazards in their community.
Alberta Wildfire tracks all the wildfires burning in the province. It also keeps tabs on where fire bans, restrictions and advisories are in effect.
All wildfires that have occurred so far in 2024 can be found on the Alberta Wildfire interactive map. The map is part of the agency's status dashboard, which contains various statistics, such as the number of active fires and in what forest areas — Alberta has 10 of them — are affected.
The agency also updates a list of particularly serious fires — called wildfires of note — that are of public interest or could threaten people, communities, or important infrastructure. Fire information on that list is updated daily. The list can also be found on the Alberta Wildfire dashboard.
People can stay up to date by following Alberta Wildfire on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and YouTube.
People can also visit Alberta 511 to view highway conditions, including potential closures.
Alberta Wildfire categorizes fires into several groups, depending on how firefighters are containing their flames.
Alberta Wildfire investigates how fires are caused, breaking it down into two categories: human activity or lightning strikes.
About 60 per cent of the 1,088 wildfires that burned in Alberta last year were started by humans, provincial data shows. About one-third were caused by lightning.
But the lightning-caused fires did the most damage last year, burning about 1.75 million hectares — about 80 per cent of the total burned area.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: CBC has removed the names and photo from this story. Now that the people are no longer missing, their identity is no longer in the public interest.