Smoke and heat expected for Edmonton over long weekend

Friday started out nice, but as smoke drifted in halfway through the day, Edmonton saw the sun vanish earlier than expected.

Smoke and hot temperatures are expected to continue over the long weekend, that has officials taking steps and urging caution to keep people safe.

Christie Tucker of Alberta Wildfire says the May long weekend is typically when they see a spike in human-caused wildfires, adding that last year 97 wildfires started over the weekend under less extreme wildfire danger levels.

“So during a period of poor air quality, all city facilities are available and open for people who need to take respite from indoors. Like any other Edmontonian, people are encouraged to stay inside as much as possible,” said Christel Kjenner, director of housing and homelessness for the City of Edmonton.

The City of Edmonton lifted it’s extreme weather response Friday morning as the city briefly got a break from heat and smoke. But wildfire smoke drifted in and covering the sky late Friday afternoon.

This summer the city will be adding 17 water re-filling stations across Edmonton, seven of them located downtown to help the city’s most vulnerable, while monitoring smoke in the air.

“So actually this activation earlier this week was the first time the city has ever activated for poor air quality and that’s obviously because of the wildfires that have drifted in.,’ said Kjenner.

Meanwhile, Alberta firefighter officials reminding people the province is still under a fire ban as flames burn west of Edmonton and other parts of the province.

Adding while crews are well positioned going into the long-weekend, they’re concerned about the potential for new fires with more poeple out camping.

“The reason we’ve put in an off-highway vehicle restriction cause we can see sparks coming off a very hot exhaust when people drive their quads or off-highway vehicles,” said Tucker.

In Edmonton’s West End, firefighters responding to house fire just after 3:30 Friday morning, at 152nd street and 105th avenue.

There were no injuries and neighbors living next door were evacuated. Fire officials are investigating what caused the fire.