Wildfire in Lamont County burns 2 homes, injures 2 firefighters

A wildfire raging in the County of Lamont consumed two homes on Monday evening, and two firefighters were injured battling the blaze, county officials say.

One injured firefighter is instable condition in an Edmonton hospital. The other is in stable condition inLamont hospital.

One of the homes that burned wasunoccupied. Fifteenother buildings, includingbarns, shops and tool sheds,also burned down, mostly in remote farm land or on Crown land.

County officials saythere is no imminent threat to other homes. No state of emergency has been declared and no evacuation order has yet been issued.

Homes lost, firefighters injured in Lamont County wildfire

9 years ago

Duration 0:42

The Lamont County wildfire spans about 30 square kilometres.

The so-calledNorth EastSkarofire, burning northeast of Edmonton, is bounded on four sides byTownship Road 582 and Township Road 572, and by RangeRoad185 and Range Road192.People are being asked to stay away from that area,said county spokesperson Heather Atkinson.

The fire hasalready covered more than 30 square kilometres.

Firefightersfrom LamontCounty, Chipman, Andrew, MundareandBruderheim are battling the blaze.

As of5 p.m. Tuesday, there were 48fires burning in Alberta's"forest protection areas;" that total does not include the fires in Parkland Country orLamontCounty.

Four of those fireare out of control, nine are listed as being "held," and 16 are under control, said Matthew Anderson, a provincial wildfire information officer.

In all, 695 firefighters were battling blazes Tuesday, assisted by 60 helicopters and two air tankers.

Duffield residents out of homes as wildfire burns

9 years ago

Duration 0:40

Greg Fedorchuk, his wife and four sons are just some of the Duffield residents who have been evacuated from their homes west of Edmonton.

To the west of Edmonton, a fire nearDuffield forced residents from their homes on Monday.

ShawnMcKerry, acting fire chief of Parkland County, said the fire wasbeing held Mondaymorning, but as wind and temperatures picked up, the flames jumped the fire-line and the fire got out of control.

"It proceeded north to directly threaten a few of our subdivisions," McKerry said. "We requested from site that the emergency operation look at declaringa local state of emergency. They felt comfortable at that time that the hazard was that significant ... that they went through with that."

Residents forced out of their homes were allowed back in for a short time Tuesday morning.Parkland County officials bused the families backto their homes to gather necessities.

"They made us have a priority list," said Duffield residentGregFedorchuk. "We went to ourcul-de-sacareas and grabbed all our junk.

"Soon as you go in you only get two minutes in,two minutes out. So, we had to write a list of everything. Only your basic necessities and an animal."

• Parkland mayor declares local state of emergency because of wildfires

Buses took residents who needed medication, left pets behind or had other immediate needs for the next 72 hours into the evacuated areas at 10 a.m.

"We're thankful to hear that no homes have been lost, at least as of late last night," saidDarynOttenbreit, who lives at thenorth end of hamlet.

"There's a lot of hot spots.Unfortunately,that wind didn't do the fire services any favours yesterday. It scattered embers all across the countryside."

The mandatory evacuation order covers residents of the hamlet of Duffield and the Duffield Downs subdivision.

Parkland County is also issuing a prepare-to-evacuate alert for residents of Clear Lake and Spruce Ridge Estates withClear Lake residentsprepared to leave on10 minutes notice and Spruce Ridge Estates residentsprepared for a one-hour notice.

No homes are in immediate danger, say county officials.

McKerry said five helicopters are dropping water and the countymay have up to 80 firefighters on the ground by the end of the day.

"Until we have the fire completely under control and it's 100-per-cent safe to get people back in their homes, people will be required to stay away."

The fire has now covered more200 hectares and moving slowly in all directions, but is expected to move to the northeast Tuesday.

Duffield students will attend classes at Seba Beach School for the next three days due to smoky conditions and in order to avoid a sudden evacuation, officials said.

So far this year, Alberta has had157 wildfires, compared with 106 at this time last year.