Make sure to be extra careful when traveling through the forest across Wood Buffalo.
Despite their still being snow on the ground, Alberta’s wildfire season officially got underway on Sunday.
Last year, there were 80 fires in the Fort McMurray Forest Area with 36 per cent being caused by humans.
Area Information Officer Lynn Daina tells Mix News early spring is usually when we see the majority of the fires.
“You got dry twigs, dry grass, really low humidity in the air, the trees are at their driest and so the spread of fire is very rapid in the spring.”
The number of human-caused fires also increased when compared to 2017 and 2018.
The two biggest fires over the past decade, the Horse River wildfire and the Richardson Fire, were started from human activity.
Daina says people just need to be extra careful.
“Enjoy the forest, have your campfire but just make sure that it’s soaked really well… OHV’s, when you look at those engines being 200 degrees Celsius, dry grass drops off and it starts a fire.”
