An Alberta emergency alert issued Sunday for a wildfire in an area in Cypress County west of Irvine, Alta., has since been cancelled.
“We were able to contain the fire and prevent any loss of residences due to the extraordinary efforts of our firefighters and partners,” said the county’s emergency management director Joe Cartwright in a statement to CBC News.
Occupants of a dozen residences that were forced to evacuate were cleared to return late Sunday afternoon.
The alert was first issued at 12:59 p.m., warning that a wildfire south of Highway 1 along Range Road 40 was threatening residential homes, with winds coming from the west.
Both directions of Range Road 40 have since been opened at eastbound Highway 1 as of Sunday afternoon, according to 511 Alberta.
County spokesperson Sean Rooney said “fire fighters still have lots of work to do” and were expected to continue operating at the site into Sunday evening.
Fire under control, no homes destroyed: MLA
Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Justin Wright told CBC News the fire is now under control, with no homes destroyed by the fire.
Wright, who spent Sunday at the scene of the fire following the emergency alert, praised the efforts of Cypress County, provincial wildfire response teams, HALO air ambulance, local emergency responders and others.
“It was really a regional response to prevent this from being a much bigger disaster,” he said.
Cypress County has issued an Alberta Emergency Alert for a wildfire east of Dunmore. Please share with those in the area.
Alberta Wildfire is deploying a crew to support wildfire fighting efforts both on the ground and from the air.
Impacted communities and those in close… https://t.co/ns8l8c2L5w
He said crews will spend the next few days responding to flare-ups or any growth of the fire.
Wright said the cause of the fire is still being investigated and pointed to dry conditions in the area as a factor behind it.
The area is southeast of Medicine Hat and about 330 kilometres southeast of Calgary.
