Alberta wildfire officials cautioning campers about extremely dry conditions

Anastasia Drummond, a wildfire information officer with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, said Friday that within a 24-hour period, 47 fires had been sparked, though the causes were still under investigation.

For those packing up the camping gear, Drummond said they need to check whether campfires are even allowed in the area they're going to, especially if gusting winds keep blowing across the province.

"First thing you want to do is find out if there's a fire ban in your area. We've been seeing a few pop up in the province," she said.

"Even if there is no fire ban, we're encouraging everyone to be extremely careful with any kind of fire this weekend, particularly if these windy conditions continue over the next few days."

Campfires should be extremely small, never left unattended, and campers should make sure they're completely extinguished to prevent the sparking of more forest fires, she said.

Ken Jones, the deputy fire chief of Strathcona County, said that they were hoping conditions would have improved enough by Friday afternoon to send several people back to their rural homes near Bruderheim, Alta.

Residents fled the flames rolling through the dry grass and thick bush north of Edmonton on Thursday.

Six homes were threatened by the fire, but in the end, only one unoccupied residence burned to the ground, Jones said.

Some out-buildings such as barns and garages were destroyed on several properties.

John Navratil, who was forced to flee his farm west of Bruderheim, returned Friday to survey the damage.

While his home was spared, he was overcome with emotion as he surveyed the charred remains of the out-buildings on a farm it's taken him 35 years to build.

"Thank God my house is still there," he sobbed in an interview with CTV Edmonton.

"All my wife's memories and everything are there. If we can save the house, it's a miracle."

While fire crews were cautiously optimistic that they may have the upper hand on the flames, gusty winds could still whip up more fires, Jones said.

"The winds are still a source of concern for us but we don't have active flames rolling across the landscape," Jones said.

Firefighters were quickly putting out spot fires that flared up, though Jones noted that flames burning through thickly wooded areas were still classified as out of control.

"We can't exactly predict what areas might flare up again due to weather conditions," Jones said.

The community of Bruderheim wasn't at risk, he said.

Officials with the M.D. of Lesser Slave River said Friday that up to 20 people had left a handful of homes on the western shores of Lesser Slave Lake as a precaution, as a wildfire charred just under two square kilometres of bush.

A second forest fire was also burning out of control north of the community, about 200 kilometres north of Edmonton, but wasn't threatening any homes, said Leah Lovequist, a wildfire information officer in the region.

She said that blaze forced them to evacuate a person in the provincial forest fire spotting tower.

Fifty firefighters were busy battling the two fires in the region, and 80 more were called in Friday to back them up, she said.

Three helicopters were dousing the fires from above, while heavy equipment crews on the ground scurried to plow up ridges of earth designed to stop the flames.

"At this time there've been no injuries associated with the fire and it appears that no residences have been burned, but there are losses of out-buildings in the neighbourhood," she said.

The largest forest fire in the province was burning about 100 kilometres north of Peace River in northwestern Alberta, Drummond said, but wasn't threatening any residences or communities.

Campers or back country users wanting to check fire bans in recreational areas can go to albertafirebans.ca to see which counties have banned campfires, Drummond said.