Fire officials are painting a clearer picture of what happened when it comes to the wildfire near Pelican Point. Bonnyville Regional Fire Chief Jay Melvin held a press conference Thursday afternoon where he explained how the fire near Range Road 474 was extinguished from the first 911 call on Monday afternoon. He says hot spots are still being doused and the investigation into what caused the blaze is moving along.
“Wildfire investigators have been on the scene since Monday night to determine what was the cause of the fire and how it started, along with RCMP support.”
Officials believe they’ve found the four areas where the fire was started and are now trying to determine if it may have been human-started. Melvin says high winds on Tuesday and muskeg terrain on the south end of the blaze made it a challenging fire to control.
“It was a difficult fire to fight for our firefighters that were out there. We were in a bit of a battle with the winds. It created a lot of challenges for us.”
Fire crews were able to hold the area burnt to an estimated 110 hectares. Melvin says Alberta Agriculture and Forestry members could be at the scene until this weekend.