Little Red River Cree Nation to return home soon, after being evacuated due to wildfires

The wildfire complex that caused the evacuations of several northern Alberta communities earlier this month is still burning, but the situation has improved significantly. 

After more than a week — and, for residents of Garden River, almost three weeks — members of Little Red River Cree Nation were told by Chief Conroy Sewepagaham they will be going home.

"We'll have the re-entry process starting on August 5th of 2024. So, the staff will be be working on coordinating with all the logistics in terms of transportation, with all the people that don't have transportation to come back home, starting on August 5th," he said in a video announcement posted on Facebook Tuesday afternoon. 

Sewepagaham said the preparation for re-entry would include making sure that all the necessary infrastructure and utilities are fully operational. That includes making sure that the grocery stores are stocked, and that there's enough fuel for the communities' needs, as well as maintaining fire protection measures. 

During a media availability Tuesday, Joe Zatylny, a deputy managing director at the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, said they're tracking some 6,100 evacuees from Little Red River Cree Nation. 

'Good progress' on wildfires

Melissa Story, an information officer with Alberta Wildfire, said they'd seen "good progress" with firefighting operations in the High Level forest area, where the Semo complex fire that caused the evacuations of Fox Lake, Garden River and John D'Or Prairie is located. 

"This weekend, we saw great progress in a lot of the major wildfires that are burning in northern Alberta," she said on Monday during a media availability. She said the Semo complex received between 10 and 30 millimetres of precipitation in specific areas. 

"It did get the precipitation. There was lower fire behaviour. We've been very successful in our hot spots and reinforcing the containment lines." 

Story said firefighters will focus on fighting the fire near Highway 58. As of Monday evening, the fire was about two kilometres north of Highway 58. 

"We have been working overnight operations with crews and heavy equipment as well, and that has helped us make some progress on the containment of the fire," said Christie Tucker, another information officer with Alberta Wildfire, on Tuesday during a media availability. 

Mark Giles, another information officer with Alberta Wildfire, said in an interview that the fires are about 19 kilometres from John D'Or Prairie, 15 kilometres from Fox Lake and 13 kilometres from Garden River. 

"Those distances have remained stable for a number of days now," Giles noted. Tucker said they haven't seen "any significant movement in the direction of any of the communities since last week." 

Giles said it'd take "a lot of work" to bring the fires under control. There are some 420 firefighters and support personnel, 17 helicopters and 70 pieces of heavy equipment working on the Semo wildfire complex.

"It's going to take a lot of work specifically on continuing to enhance the containment lines and the the fire guard, and obviously working to extinguish hotspots," he said, as well as the areas of concern along the complex's southern perimeter, because they want to keep the fires away from the communities. 

Some more showers this week

Brian Proctor, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said in an interview they're expecting showers in northern Alberta for much of this week, until Friday or Saturday. 

The temperature in the High Level area is going to be relatively mild, he said. 

"We're looking for highs of about 20 to 24 for tomorrow, then we sort of hold near 18 to 22 through much of the remainder of the work week."

On the weekend, the temperature will begin to climb again, he said, to mid-twenties — seasonal conditions for northern Alberta.