Fire Burning North of Wrigley (FS015-26)

Weather conditions:

The community should expect to see significant fire activity today with extreme fire weather conditions. Dry conditions continue, with northwesterly winds, this will lead to smoke in the community and poor visibility. 

FS015-26:

Incident status 

• The fire grew significantly to the north and somewhat to the west yesterday but did not move closer to town. 
• With a shift to northwesterly winds today, the fire may grow meangingfully to the south – towards Wrigley – whish is the biggest fire behaviour concern. 
• An Alberta-based Incident Management Team has been deployed and will coordinate firefighting actions.
• No losses of cabins or structures reported at this time.
• Please stay clear of the area and give firefighters and aircraft the space they need to safely and effectively respond to the fire.

Incident actions

• Wildfire crews and aircraft responded aggressively and immediately on initial attack. However, extreme fire weather conditions and poor visibility overwhelmed these efforts. 
• Ignition operations are being planned to head off the fire’s growth towards Wrigley. These will only go ahead as conditions allow and with the right resources in place. 
• Structure Protection is being deployed in the community to prevent structure ignition if the fire approaches the community.

• Fire behaviour and size mean suppression action directly at the fire’s edge with crews is currently ineffective – however, any openings for suppression success will jumped on aggressively.