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Forest fire jumps Highway 5 Route to Fort Smith remains open despite blaze
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Saturday, June 8, 2013
THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
The forest fire season began in earnest in the Fort Smith area on June 1 when a significant blaze started about 35 kilometres to the west on Highway 5.
Clayton Prail, a member of a Parks Canada firefighting crew from Jasper National Park, uses a terra torch on June 3 in a burnout operation on the south side of Highway 5, about 35 kilometres west of Fort Smith. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo
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"We believe it was caused by lightning," said Tim Gauthier, a fire information officer with Wood Buffalo National Park.
As of June 6, the fire covered about 2,500 hectares in the park south of the highway.
On the afternoon of June 5, gusting southwest winds caused the fire to jump to the north side of Highway 5 and into the firefighting jurisdiction of the GNWT.
The fire covered 1,389 hectares north of the highway on June 6, according to Judy McLinton, a spokesperson with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
McLinton said the fire on the north side of Highway 5 was burning away from the road.
"It's not big flames, just smoldering," she said.
As of mid-week, the GNWT had waterbombers working on the fire, including laying down a fire retardant line to the southeast. There were at least 25 people working on the fire, and five contracted bulldozers were creating fire breaks.
There was some rain in the area on June 6 which alleviated the situation slightly.
"It's not going to put the fire out, but it just dampens it down," said Mike Keizer, a fire information officer with the park.
The park side of the fire was being fought by about 20 firefighters on the ground, contracted helicopters, and waterbombers from the GNWT and Alberta.
Despite all the fire activity, Highway 5 had not been closed as of late last week.
On June 3, Parks Canada performed a burnout operation on the south side of the highway to eliminate fuel for the fire.
Gauthier said the fire had actually reached the highway – for a stretch of one-and-a-half to two kilometres – and the winds were out of the north on that day.
"While the winds were with us, we did a burnout to remove the rest of the fuels between the end of the fire and the highway," he said.
The burnout operation covered a six-kilometre stretch of the highway between the Salt Plains access road to the east and, on the western edge, a firebreak cut south from the highway.
Gauthier said the burnout operation was very successful.
The main area of potential growth for the fire in the park is toward the southwest, he said.
"So that's just where we want it to go. There are wetlands down there, so it doesn't have a whole lot of places to go."
Fort Smith Mayor Brad Brake said there was a little bit of concern in the community about the fire.
"People are interested in keeping an eye on things," he said.
Brake was relieved Highway 5 wasn't closed by the blaze or the burnout operation.
The mayor also praised the firefighting efforts of Parks Canada and the GNWT, saying, "We have some of the best firefighters in the world."
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