3 more northern Alta. communities evacuated because of wildfires overnight

29-05-2025

Wildfire flames turn the sky red near Loon River First Nation in northern Alberta in the early morning of May 29, 2025. (Credit: Tony Noskeyi)
Alberta's wildfire situation escalated over Wednesday night.
Four northern communities were evacuated, starting with Chipewyan Lake at 5 p.m.
Then, between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., the province evacuated Red Earth Creek, Peerless Trout First Nation, and Loon River First Nation.
Near the lakes that share a name with these communities – Loon Lake, Trout Lake and Chipewyan Lake – is what authorities have named the Red Earth East wildfire complex, which consists of 10 different wildfires.
'I noticed the smoke in our area so it got me thinking that maybe we're going to be evacuated because Peerless (Trout First Nation) was evacuated. So it just made sense that we were going to be next,' Loon River resident Matthew Letendre told CTV News Edmonton early Thursday morning at the Edmonton hotel his family was staying at.
'It just happened fast. We were driving to Slave (Lake) and then we passed that fire that was there. We actually saw the flames from that fire. It kind of hit us right there.'
Heavy equipment, airtankers and helicopters have been assigned to help the Red Earth East firefight.
As of Thursday morning, 44 wildfires were burning in Alberta, up from 34 on Tuesday.
This is a breaking news story. More to come…

Hashtags

#PeerlessTroutFirstNation

#RedEarthCreek

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Saskatchewan likely to surpass 2024 tornado total

CTV News

27 minutes ago

CTV News

Saskatchewan likely to surpass 2024 tornado total

'They did cause a little bit of damage': Storm chaser on possible tornadoes in Saskatchewan It's been an active storm season across Saskatchewan this year. The province is currently sitting at 17 confirmed tornados, and after a stormy weekend, that number is likely to increase. 'There's a number of others [tornados] that are currently under investigation ... including yesterday's from near Allan there, as well as several other reports of funnel clouds over the past several weeks so we could see that number creep higher still. And of course, we still have a fair bit of Summer to get through as well,' Crawford Luke, a meteorologist with Environment Canada said. The area around Allan saw funnel clouds in the sky on Sunday, and Environment Canada is working alongside the Northern Tornado project to confirm and count the tornados in Saskatchewan. 'Fortunately, in this case, there is no damage that we know of, at least at this moment from these thunderstorms yesterday. However, it can make it a little bit trickier to confirm whether that funnel cloud did, in fact, come in contact with the ground and become a tornado or not,' Luke said. At the end of Summer 2024, 18 tornados were counted in Saskatchewan. Given the current rate, Luke shared that the province should expect to exceed last year's total. 'We have more summer to get through, but also a lot of reports that are under investigation still. So I suspect we're going to see that 17 number climb higher. and probably surpass the 18 that we saw last year in the province,' Luke said. The rainfall which comes along with these storms is also putting pressure on drainage systems in communities in the province. The City of Saskatoon said that while the heavy rainfall can cause some inconveniences, the city is equipped to handle this particularly busy storm season. 'We got calls from about eight different streets that there was some ponding in the streets. And that can impede traffic, which is unfortunate, but what will happen over time is that small system or the minor system will remove that water or it will dry up and we can carry on business as usual,' Russ Munro, director of Saskatoon water said. Saskatoon has two different drainage systems in place to mitigate flooding. The minor and major systems each have a different role depending on the severity of the flooding, and Munro shared that both systems were in use during Sunday's storm, as different areas of the city saw various levels of rainfall. Anyone with concerns regarding drainage issues is encouraged to call the City of Saskatoon.