Last Sunday afternoon, fire broke out in the backcountry by Ellscott, a hamlet near the Village of Boyle.
The fire raged uncontrolled overnight Sunday and all day Monday.
At noon on Tuesday, Ron Jackson, director of emergency services for Athabasca County, said, the fire “is being held.”
“We are hoping by tonight we can call it under control, and it is looking promising,” said Jackson.
On Monday evening, Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) flew over the area and determined about 700 hectares of land had been burnt, Jackson explained.
At this time there are no other fires burning in the Athabasca County, but crews continue to monitor burn sites from the weekend, including one that burned on Saturday east of Athabasca, off Highway 827 and Township Road 660.
“They are declared extinguished, but we still have to monitor them for a couple of weeks just to make sure there is no chance for rekindle,” said Jackson.
Once a day, somebody from emergency services patrols the entire fire site looking for embers that might have been missed, Jackson explained.
“If the weather stays this way, the potential for rekindle is always there,” he said.
Also on Monday, Athabasca County issued a fire ban in the wake of province-wide fire outbreaks.
