Illegal campfire blamed for grass fire that temporarily closed Hwy 63 near Fort McMurray

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 28, 2025 4:33 PM EDT | Last Updated: 7 minutes ago

An amerciable campfire caused a writer occurrence that temporarily closed a conception of road adjacent Fort McMurray precocious past week, occurrence investigators said Monday.

Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo firefighters tackled the blaze successful the Quarry Ridge gully soon earlier 3 p.m. Friday with the assistance of helicopters and fixed helping craft from Alberta Wildfire and h2o bombers. 

Highway 63 was afloat reopened soon aft 4:30 p.m.

An probe recovered that the occurrence started connected Ridge Trail and was caused by a campfire that had been near unattended and improperly extinguished. 

Fire marshal Nick Brenner said the occurrence was not related to immoderate controlled burns.

"Open-air campfires are strictly prohibited wrong the limits of Fort McMurray," Brenner said successful a quality release. 

"Controlled burns are conducted by trained Regional Emergency Services and Alberta Wildfire unit — and lone erstwhile conditions are safe. These proactive burns assistance trim wildfire hazard by removing adust writer and different fuels."