Province takes command role in firefighting efforts in Sturgeon County

Cameron MacCuish · CBC News

· Posted: May 09, 2025 4:24 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

After moving astir the clock for the past week to negociate the effect to the Redwater wildfire, Sturgeon County volition manus implicit work for firefighting operations to the province.

In a quality release, Sturgeon County said it requested assistance from Alberta Forestry and Alberta's Wildfire's incidental absorption team. They will beryllium taking the pb bid relation successful warring the wildfire.

Sturgeon County Fire Chief Chad Moore said transferring the pb incidental bid relation to Alberta Wildfire is indispensable to instrumentality immoderate of the utmost unit disconnected section crews.

Moore said that transferring this work to the state volition let teams from the Sturgeon Regional Emergency Management Partnership Group — who person been independently managing the wildfire for the past week — a much-needed reprieve.

The radical has been often "working astir the timepiece for up to 18 to 20 hours a day" to negociate the wildfire response, and this caller bid volition instrumentality immoderate unit disconnected the group, Moore said.

He said the group will proceed to bid their exigency co-ordination centre to enactment residents and supply resources to the front-line effort.

WATCH | What caused the Redwater wildfire? 

Gavin Hojka, an Alberta wildfire incidental commander, said that arsenic of Friday morning, the incidental absorption squad from Alberta Wildfire has assumed firefighting operations.

He said the provincial squad volition present negociate the dense equipment, airtankers, helicopters, and the astir 150 firefighters that are moving to suppress the wildfire.

Moore said the occurrence began past play aft an ATV caught occurrence successful the Redwater Provincial Recreation Area, astir 70 kilometres northbound of Edmonton. 

Since then, the wildfire has grown to much than 3,000 hectares and remains retired of control. 

Sturgeon County officials said that 71 residences person been evacuated owed to the wildfire in the country betwixt Range Road 213 eastbound to Range Road 203 and Township Road 580 southbound to the North Saskatchewan River.

Hojka said that the occurrence remains precise progressive owed to beardown winds, but that higher humidity and little temperatures person helped little the strength of the fire.

"Today we're looking astatine a aboveground and crushed occurrence with immoderate of our trees that whitethorn torch," said Hojka.

"But we're not anticipating the moving crown occurrence that we saw connected the archetypal fewer days of the fire. So it's allowing the crews to get a bully grip connected the conditions and marque immoderate bully advancement today."

Hojka said that important amounts of rainfall are inactive needed to little the occurrence information successful the area.

One location has been destroyed by the fire.

More teams volition beryllium entering the country connected Friday to bash a much extended harm assessment.