Some relief in Grande Prairie region as parts of evacuation order lifted

Some residents of the Grande Prairie area were allowed to return to their homes Thursday, as evacuation orders due to the Dunes West wildfire were partially lifted — at least for now. 

Those who were allowed back in — to properties between Township Road 712 and Township Road 710 and between Range Road 65 and Range Road 74 — remain under an evacuation alert, meaning they have to be ready to leave again on 30 minutes notice.

"It's sort of like the beast went through and it's sleeping right now with the weather conditions," said Grande Prairie Reeve Bob Marshall in an interview with CBC News Thursday. 

But with temperatures set to soar again this weekend, he's worried the reprieve may not last. 

Hundreds of people were ordered out of their County of Grande Prairie homes last Friday as the Dunes West wildfire "roared its ugly head to life," according to Marshall.

It started in the river valley, southwest of the city of Grande Prairie and currently covers about 1,600 hectares.

Four homes destroyed 

The area is home to several subdivisions, many of which have been affected by the fire.

Among the hardest hit have been Riverview Pines and Spring Creek Estates, according to Grande Prairie Regional Emergency Partnership Incident Commander Darryl Martin. 

At least four homes have been completely destroyed, but Grande Prairie Fire Chief Trevor Grant says overnight, several homes were saved.

"We did have a fairly significant flame front come in, but the crews were actually in the yards that [were] burning up and they were able to put fires out … to prevent those homes from being lost," he said. 

He could not say where exactly the lost homes were, but officials say the owners have all been notified. 

Earlier this week, hundreds of people attended an information session, which grew heated as people complained about a lack of information about their properties and wanted to know when they might be able to get back to tend to farms and livestock and assess the damage.

Marshall says officials are trying to get more information to people.

"They want to see pictures, they want to see what is actually happening in the area," he said. 

A video released on YouTube Wednesday contained some aerial footage but it wasn't clear when the video was shot. 

Canadian Armed Forces deployed

About 100 Canadian Forces soldiers have been deployed to the County of Grande Prairie. 

"They'll be helping out on the ground," said Marshall. "There's a lot of ground fires. There's peat bog in here and those fires will run in the ground for a long time and we'll probably be fighting them all through the summer unless we get massive volumes of rain."

He says the only way to deal with those fires is to dig them out — and so to have the extra resources to do that will be huge.

Martin acknowledged in the video released Wednesday that the fire doesn't look very dangerous right now, which is adding to the frustration of those still out of their homes.  

"Fire is deceptive," said Martin. "It doesn't appear to be as active to people that are standing on the outside looking in. But for those folks that are inside fighting the fire, it's still out of control." 

He said the slightly cooler weather of the past couple of days and calm winds have allowed the fire to "kind of lay low a little bit" and it's not producing a lot of smoke. But with temperatures set to soar again, he says that could change fast. 

People who have livestock in the evacuation zone can request a temporary permit to get in and remove the animals, or authorize someone else to do so. Martin said they are also trying to work with people to recover pets who might have been left behind. 

As for those who have been able to return home, Marshall said they have to stay vigilant. 

"We need people to stay tuned to the alert emergency alerts," he said. "The weather conditions are changing right now. There's no major rain in the forecast, so things could change very rapidly."