Teepee Creek-Kleskun Creek fire held, evacuees return

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It's been a good few days for GCU-007, Grande Prairie County Fire Chief Trevor Grant said May 15. The forest fire is now classified as “shut down” and the fire danger has been downgraded to “Very High”.

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“Day-to-day responsibility for monitoring and extinguishing the fire will be assigned to Alberta Wildfires.”

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Dismantling the camp is the natural progression of an operation of this magnitude, Grant said. The Provincial Wildfire Division will take charge of the next steps.

“Alberta Wildfire has teams that have come to the area and are taking on some of the longer-term firefighting operations that will be taking place on the Teepee Creek Fire.”

GCU-007 was first assessed on May 10 when it began approximately four kilometers east of Teepee Creek. The dry conditions and gusty winds caused the fire to spread 8 miles (12.8 kilometers). At 7:30 p.m., Grande Prairie County officials evacuated the most threatened areas.

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In the 10:30 p.m. update, officials confirmed the fire jumped from the Big Smoky River and was now in Greenview MD. Shortly after midnight on May 11, residents streamed out

The Mutual Aid Fire involved crews and resources from multiple municipalities, including County of Grande Prairie, Grande Prairie, Big Lakes County, MD of Greenview, Smokey River, Slave Lake and the Government of Alberta

Grant estimated it involved 100 men, the Alberta Helitac (HAC) crew, 20 pieces of heavy equipment, four helicopters, eight fire engines and three fire engines (watercraft). More than 20,000 gallons of water were poured onto the fire in the last few days alone. The teams completed a fire containment area and these combined efforts helped. There was some rain, Grant said. Unfortunately it dried out quickly due to the wind.

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As residents return to their homes and their lives, they must be alert to dangers. Information can be found in the homecoming packages. Some of these dangers don't immediately come to mind.

“Burned trees or burned out root systems and ash pits that can cause significant burn injury” are at the top of the list, Grant said.

In both spring and summer, people can take steps to prevent fires from starting. On their off-road vehicles, they can check and clean the exhaust systems, make sure the spark arresters are working properly, and more. For more information, visit the county's Firesmart resource website.

As of the latest update, a fire ban is still in effect for the Grande Prairie Forest Area.

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