Most residents of the Wabasca area are able to return home after evacuation orders for most of the region were lifted late Tuesday evening.
Only Bigstone Cree Nation (BCN) Reserve C, located north of Wabasca where a large wildfire began May 23, remains under an evacuation order as of Thursday morning.
The lifting of the evacuation order starts to bring an end to a harrowing week for Wabasca-area residents.
Their ordeal started last Saturday when a burning vehicle at the BCN transfer site on Reserve C sparked a wildfire. Although Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (AESRD) firefighters were able to get the fire under control initially, it jumped a fireguard at 11 a.m. last Sunday morning and grew from 55 hectares to over 200 hectares.
At 3 p.m. last Sunday, AESRD evacuated residents of Reserve C and put the hamlet of Wabasca and the other three BCN reserves on 30-minute standby to evacuate. That was upgraded to a full, mandatory evacuation order by later Sunday evening.
Close to 4,000 people were evacuated from the Wabasca region, with the majority registering at reception centres established in Calling Lake. Others registered at the Athabasca Regional Multiplex.
Both reception centres provided food and shelter to hundreds of evacuees, while other displaced residents camped or stayed elsewhere after registering.
