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Despite the end of the wildfire season, mild weather and dryer climate is pushing the province to see more wildfires and experts are warning Albertans to remain diligent to prevent wildfires, even as the cold weather approaches.

Josee St-Onge, provincial information officer with Alberta Wildfire, said dry and warm weather paired with a windy day can cause a spark to flare up and create a wildfire. She said many landowners often burn brush or debris accumulated on their property in the winter, but warned those who were planning to do so to wait until there is 15 cm of snow on the ground to make the work safer.

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“We’ll have to watch how much snow we get over the winter, how (the snow) melts, when it melts and if it gets absorbed into the soil, because all of that will play a big role in determining how our next wildfire season starts. Those are all factors that are very important in determining what the fire danger will be in the spring,” said St-Onge. 

Alberta Wildfire said it has noticed new fires starting in “just about every area” of the province from south in the Rocky Mountains to up north towards the border with the Northwest Territories. St-Onge said that the wildfires are not isolated but a “widespread reality.”

Around this time of year many Albertans are spending more time outdoors, but she cautions them to be extremely careful with cooking and warming fires. Officials are asking those who are lighting campfires to thoroughly extinguish them by soaking the fire with water, stirring the ashes and repeating the process until no heat is being generated. St-Onge cautioned that fires can burn underground, especially when it’s dry. They can burn into the organic layer on top of the ground and smoulder unseen.  

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“Just because it’s chilly out it doesn’t mean that a fire doesn’t pose a risk if it’s on the landscape. People need to be extremely careful that they are fully extinguishing those fires before they walk away,” said St-Onge. 

“People that are heading out to camp or do some hiking at this time of year, even if they’re in areas where traditionally we haven’t seen a lot of wildfires, it could still happen because the conditions are there for it. It really is widespread and we want everyone to be aware and to take that extra caution when they’re out on the landscape,” said St-Onge. 

Wildfire season officially ended Oct. 31 with record-breaking numbers. Alberta Wildfire responded to 1,119 fires since the beginning of the year and a record of 2.2 million hectares of burned land. The province’s five-year average prior to this year was 226,000 hectares of burned land.

There are currently 69 active wildfires burning since the official end of the season and presently there have been 22 new wildfire starts.

St-Onge said the spark in wildfires following the season “is a concern,” and officials will continue to watch the fires closely to plan for the spring.

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