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Parks Canada is shifting its approach to wildfires in Wood Buffalo National Park, deploying a dedicated team to Pine Lake while tackling the Davidson Lake and Paskwa fires in partnership with the Alberta government.
Until now, the national park’s Davidson Lake and Pine Lake wildfires – around 15 in total – had been considered one complex.
But from Saturday onward, the Davidson Lake fires will be paired with the Paskwa wildfire that has been burning near Fox Lake for weeks. Those fires, jointly named the Davidson-Paskwa complex, will be managed by an inter-agency Parks Canada and Alberta team.
The Pine Lake fires will now receive a full Parks Canada incident management team of their own.
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As of Friday, just under 100 firefighters were working on fires in the park.
Fire 14, in the Davidson-Paskwa complex, is edging closer to the community of Garden River. On Friday, Parks Canada said the fire was now about 22 km from Garden River and 6.6 km from the “community evacuation trigger line.”
“Fire specialists will continue monitoring fire behaviour and weather conditions, which will ensure a timely recommendation for evacuation of Garden River, if needed,” Parks Canada stated. Rain was in the Friday forecast for the Davidson Lake area.
The Pine Lake fires, surrounding a popular recreational area south of Fort Smith, have moved closer to Pine Lake itself. Fire 7, now estimated to have burned 40,000 hectares, was one kilometre northwest of Pine Lake as of Friday, Parks Canada stated. It isn’t currently a threat to Fort Smith or Fort Fitzgerald to the north and east.
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Fire crews are examining options to create fire breaks north of Fire 7, Parks Canada stated, and assessing the potential for controlled burns that would “backburn and tie the fires into nature features.”
Since the start of the week, all backcountry camping in the park has been banned due to the extreme conditions.
An area closure also extends from the Salt River day use area to Peace Point, including Parsons Lake Road from the Salt Plains Access Road junction to Pine Lake Road.
“The Salt Plains day use area remains open at this time, but may be subject to change on short notice,” Parks Canada stated.
