The communities of Robb and Mercoal have joined the growing list of evacuations caused by wildfires across the province.
Residents of the two hamlets were evacuated to Edson on Friday evening, according to Alberta Emergency Alert.
This brings the number of communities evacuated in Yellowhead County to three, including Peers.
An update provided by county officials at 7 p.m. on Sunday said a re-entry plan is in place, and residents could be returning to all three areas as soon as noon on June 3.
“We’re getting a lot of pressure for re-entry and I understand that,” said Yellowhead County Mayor Wade Williams. “We have to be somewhat careful that we don’t allow a bunch of re-entry and then have people have to be evacuated again.”
He added, residents with breathing challenges that could be exacerbated by lingering smoke may want to stay out of the area for longer.
While the two fires (EWF-036 and EWF-030) remain out of control, cooler temperatures and precipitation helped firefighting efforts over the weekend.
In Peers, Albert Bahri, General Manager of Protective Services, Yellowhead County, said a “humidity bubble” was created using the creek in the hamlet and its domestic water supply; that water supply only had about an hour of flow left when they finished, he said, and will need to be replenished ahead of residents returning. Power and gas were also shut off to the area, and while power has been restored, the county is working with companies to get the gas going again.
“I don’t know if people realize how close we came to losing the entire Hamlet of Peers, but had the systems that were in place not been in place, that hamlet was in huge trouble,” commented Williams. “The crews were able to stop the fire at the rail road — just on the north side of the tracks is where the hamlet starts, and that’s how close it came.”
Some gear and firefighting staff will remain in the community for now, the Mayor added.
Bahri said officials have also unified command of the Mercoal and Peers fires under the Yellowhead Complex, joining with Alberta Forestry and Parks and Alberta Wildfire to manage the situation and improve access to resources.
Yellowhead County will livestream its next update on YouTube at 11 a.m. today.
According to the Alberta Wildfire Status Dashboard, as of yesterday evening the Mercoal Creek fire was out of control at 320 hectares, while the Peers fire was out of control at 738 hectares.
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