Sturgeon County wildfires force more evacuations for residents, livestock

Wildfires affecting Sturgeon County near the town of Redwater are causing more evacuation orders Wednesday night.

The area now extends from Range Road 213 east to Range Road 203, and from Township Road 580 south to the North Saskatchewan River.

The area under evacuation is rural, leaving many farmers and ranchers to not only get themselves to safety, but with livestock to secure as well.

“We’ve been supporting farmers who have had to evacuate livestock. We had quite a large livestock evacuation that occurred the first day of the fire. We’ve also had some other residents reach out to us looking to move horses or a couple of other pieces,” explained Chad Moore, Sturgeon County Fire Chief.

“We’re working through our emergency social services team to connect them to resources if they need them, or to other ag networks so that they can move those animals out.”

Sturgeon County Mayor Alanna Hnatiw says that in addition to support from the county, many of the farmers evacuating have their own resources to reach out to.

“A lot of folks have neighbour connections, and a lot of folks are able to coordinate the evacuation of those animals on their own. And the ones that don’t then reach out for support,” said Hnatiw.

Support can be found in many areas. The Alberta Association of Agricultural Societies has called for anyone with space for people or animals to sign up on their website, where they provide a map, broken down by region, of places people can go with or without livestock.

And the Alberta SPCA is posting information to their social media with helpful tips for evacuating when you have animals on your property, such as including your contact information on the animal in some way, and making sure ownership and records are stored digitally.

But there are still situations where an animal may escape or fences cut out of desperation if the fire is closing in. If you are not the animal’s owner and come across a stray, it’s helpful to try and reunite the animal with its owner.

“What I might do in a situation like that, I’d take a picture of the animal so it’s identified, and maybe take a pin drop so I know what the location is, and I’d invite you to share that even below Sturgeon County’s updates on the facebook page, so that residents can start to recognize and understand where their animals are, and if it’s safe to do so, make efforts to rescue them,” said Hnatiw.

Cooler weather has helped with the fire situation across central Alberta. An evacuation order has now been lifted for the town of Boyle, and on Wednesday, Parkland County canceled their wildfire alert, saying the fire near Dufield is under control.