Province takes command role in firefighting efforts in Sturgeon County
Alberta Wildfire will take command of firefighting personnel and equipment
After working around the clock for the past week to manage the response to the Redwater wildfire, Sturgeon County will hand over responsibility for firefighting operations to the province.
In a news release, Sturgeon County said it requested assistance from Alberta Forestry and Alberta's Wildfire's incident management team. They will be taking the lead command role in fighting the wildfire.
Sturgeon County Fire Chief Chad Moore said transferring the lead incident command role to Alberta Wildfire is necessary to take some of the extreme pressure off local crews.
Moore said that transferring this responsibility to the province will allow teams from the Sturgeon Regional Emergency Management Partnership Group — who have been independently managing the wildfire for the past week — a much-needed reprieve.
The group has been frequently "working around the clock for up to 18 to 20 hours a day" to manage the wildfire response, and this new command will take some pressure off the group, Moore said.
He said the group will continue to command their emergency co-ordination centre to support residents and provide resources to the front-line effort.
Gavin Hojka, an Alberta wildfire incident commander, said that as of Friday morning, the incident management team from Alberta Wildfire has assumed firefighting operations.
He said the provincial team will now manage the heavy equipment, airtankers, helicopters, and the approximately 150 firefighters that are working to suppress the wildfire.
Moore said the fire began last weekend after an ATV caught fire in the Redwater Provincial Recreation Area, about 70 kilometres north of Edmonton.
Since then, the wildfire has grown to more than 3,000 hectares and remains out of control.
Sturgeon County officials said that 71 residences have been evacuated due to the wildfire in the area between Range Road 213 east to Range Road 203 and Township Road 580 south to the North Saskatchewan River.
Hojka said that the fire remains very active due to strong winds, but that higher humidity and lower temperatures have helped lower the intensity of the fire.
"Today we're looking at a surface and ground fire with some of our trees that may torch," said Hojka.
"But we're not anticipating the running crown fire that we saw on the first few days of the fire. So it's allowing the crews to get a good handle on the conditions and make some good progress today."
Hojka said that significant amounts of rain are still needed to lower the fire danger in the area.
One home has been destroyed by the fire.
More teams will be entering the area on Friday to do a more extensive damage assessment.
Police allege man tampered with sprinklers
Redwater RCMP said charges are pending against a man who police allege was tampering with sprinkler systems that had been set up by the fire department to protect residences from wildfires.
The man was trespassing in the evacuation zone and rendering the sprinklers inactive, RCMP said Friday afternoon in a news release.
"We want to send a clear message to those who have evacuated, as well as to those who enter evacuation zones to cause harm," stated Staff Sgt. Michael Jaszczyszyn, district advisory non-commissioned officer for Eastern Alberta District.
"We are patrolling evacuation areas to ensure the safety of the communities and will continue to apprehend, arrest and charge all those who commit criminal activities within those zones, especially those that can facilitate the spread of wildfires."