Fort McMurray Forest Area’s wildfire danger level has been set to moderate, except for the area north of Lake Athabasca, which has a very high fire danger level.
Three wildfires are currently burning north of Fort Chipewyan, but Alberta Wildfire crews are allowing them to naturally burn as they are in remote areas and are posing no threat to communities or resources.
“We allow the wildfires to play out their natural role onto the landscape under the watchful eye of experienced fire managers,” according to the June 24, wildfire update.
Alberta Wildfire says doing this creates a break in the continuous fuels, reduces the intensity of the fire, provides safety zones for their firefighting crews to work from and reduces the cost of fighting the wildfires.
They concluded that all three fires were caused by lightning.
All Alberta wildfires can be viewed on the province’s new Dashboard.