It’s Wildfire Season Warns BRFA

Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority (BRFA) Chief, Brian McEvoy, warns wildfire season has begun in Alberta. After last year’s record number of wildfires in Alberta, including a fire north of Cold Lake which shut down two major oil operations for a month, McEvoy wants everyone to be careful with their burns.

Any fire, other than warming or cooking, requires a fire permit, explains the Chief. “We’re asking everybody to be very careful over the next three days,” due to expected high winds, McEvoy says there are safety concerns, “we are not issuing any new permits and cautioning anybody that does have an existing permit to be very careful with burning, if the wind exceeds 10 kilometres an hour.”

Permits have conditions that deal with high winds, says the chief, “on their permits there’s a condition that they cannot ignite a fire if winds exceeds 10 kilometres an hour. We’re counting on the people that have fires to be finished or not to light them if the wind picks ups.”

McEvoy says BRFA will reassess on Friday whether or not to start issuing permits again. Some neighbouring counties, including Lac La Biche County have fire bans in place. There is not an active fire ban for the Bonnyville region, as of the time of post for this article.

For more information on obtaining a permit, visit BRFA online, brfa.ca. For information on wildfires and fire ban status check, Alberta Wildfire.