Grande Prairie has woken up to a strong smell of campfire for the past several days, which is in large part thanks to a wildfire burning around 6000 hectares in BC, south east of Tumbler Ridge.
Wildfire Information Officer Kelly Burke says if the smoke blanketing the city seems worse today, that’s because it is.
“A lot of it has to do with the weather and the winds that we’re experiencing. During the week, you’re going to see it off and on more intense and then it’ll go away, depending on the wind and what’s happening with the weather.”
Burke says ESRD is busy working with their B.C. counterparts to create a strategy as the fire moves closer to our province.
At this point it’s only 10 kilometres away from the Alberta border.
“Right now we’ve sent an incident command team over there,” says Burke. “It’s about 13 personnel assisting; we’ve been working with them. They’ll start their joint command today, so we’ll start working that fire with them.”
The wildfire hazard in our region is now listed as very high.
Burke says there is no fire ban yet, but there could be in the next few days.
