1,700 firefighters on duty in Alberta as temperatures rise

While the number of wildfires burning across Alberta is down from last week, high temperatures forecast over the next few days have firefighters on alert.

"It's a little bit different than it has been over the past two weeks," wildfire information officer Geoffrey Driscoll said Wednesday.

"We have about 90 fires burning across the province right now and we were above 100 for at least 12, maybe 13 days."

However, with temperatures expected to soar in the 30s over the next couple days, Driscoll said firefighters are already on alert, putting in fireguards to prevent wildfires from spreading.

"One of the biggest things (heat) does is it reduces the amount of water in the air — the humidity. Because one of the main things fire needs to grow is oxygen, when there's not as much water in there, it just means that (the fires) can burn that much hotter.

"You're going to see extreme fire behaviour on a day like today."

Driscoll said he is confident firefighters in the province are up to the task, though.

He said there are 1,700 firefighters working on wildfires in Alberta right now, and that more are coming in to the province every day from Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. He's also expecting a group of firefighters from Mexico to arrive in Alberta today, with another 50 coming from "all over" in the next week.

"We're all in this together, so we look at what the priorities are and then we'll see who gets the resources. Alberta is a priority, just like B.C. and Saskatchewan, so we're getting firefighters," he said.

Already, there have been 1,300 fires this year, while there were only  787 last year, Driscoll said. Measured over five years, the average is 832 fires per year.