The fire danger in the Grande Prairie Forest Area remains low, but some dangers may be lurking under the surface to make a calm situation very dangerous in the blink of an eye.
“The thing about lightning is it will come through and we might not see those fires for days or sometimes weeks, they’ll smoulder and holdover,” says Wildfire Information Officer Kelly Burke.
Of the 37 fires reported in the GP Forest Area so far in 2019, six have been caused by lightning. Burke says the remote starting point for many of the fires makes them difficult to both check on and track.
She adds a lot of the time they have to deploy helicopters to not only get a better view but also to use as the main piece of equipment.
Burke says the good news is, the amount of rain we have received will help prevention efforts as the ground will be saturated, but knows the current number of reported fires is likely to go higher based on the time of year.
“Some years we have more than that, we will see going through as we are just getting into our lightning season right now.”
Burke says the most important thing residents and travellers can do is call 310-Fire when they see smoke so officials can assess the situation as quickly as possible before it gets out of hand.
