Wildfire risk spurs Alberta park closures

Authorities in Canada’s main oil-producing province of Alberta have closed some parks and campgrounds, and are urging residents to avoid activities that could enrage wildfires to avoid straining firefighting resources over the holiday weekend.
Traditionally, residents spend the Victoria Day weekend outside as families take advantage of the warmer weather to go camping or enjoy other outdoor activities.
The long weekend in May has usually seen an uptick in seasonal wildfires, some of which are accidentally caused by people.
This year, however, record-high temperatures and tinder-dry vegetation brought about an early and intense onset of the wildfire season in western Canada.
Alberta has been hit the hardest, with some 10,000 people forced out of their homes as of Thursday.
Officials have warned that more wildfires could spread in the next few hot and dry days, even as firefighters make progress in tackling widespread blazes that have slowed the outflow of natural gas from Canada into the US, spiking prices.
About 8% of the total gas consumed in or exported from the US comes from Canada.
With abnormally hot and dry weather forecast until at least early next week, Alberta has preventatively closed some provincial parks and campgrounds for the weekend and imposed a fire ban.
“May long weekend is one of the busiest times for human-caused wildfires,” Alberta Wildfire said yesterday. “This weekend, we are asking Albertans to put safety first and support our wildfire response by restricting outdoor recreation activities in the northwest region of the forest protection area.”
About 2,700 firefighters, including personnel from Canadian and US agencies and the Canadian army, were battling about 94 active wildfires yesterday.
The wildfires have put Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s disaster management skills – as well as her party’s policies – under the microscope ahead of the provincial election on May 29.