A month into wildfire season and officials with Alberta Wildfire say they still have yet to see any major flare-ups in the Grande Prairie Forest Area due to holdover fires.
Public Information Officer Kelly Burke says while the snow in the region is finally starting to melt in the more remote parts of the forest area, they have yet to see any real influx of hot spots due to burning, but she expects that to change. She adds overall, the number of fires thus far have been minimal.
“There has been a lot of burning on the landscape over the winter, so we are anticipating more holdover fires,” she says.
“We’re on number four right now, some of those were burning without a permit, but some were to do with industry, so that’s what we are seeing right now,” she adds.
Burke says with more and more people heading into the forest area with nicer weather arriving, fire safety, especially is especially crucial during the spring month. She adds the mantra of soak it, stir it, and soak it again, is as important now as it ever can be.
“If you still feel the heat, you want to continually pour water on it until you can’t anymore… we see this often, people just put a little bit of water on it and walk away, it can then dry it out in the sun and wind and reignite.”
Alberta Wildfire has also released a new app that provides updates on wildfire dangers or hazards, and if there are any fire bans in the area, which can be downloaded for free on Google Play, and App Store. The wildfire danger level in the Grande Prairie Forest Area is low as of April 8th.