A State of Local Emergency has been declared by the RMWB for the Fort Fitzgerald area due to a wildfire currently over 400,000 hectares in size.

The fire began in Wood Buffalo National Park where it was under Parks Canada jurisdiction.

Over the weekend command of the eastern section of the fire, now designated MNZ003,  was handed over to Alberta Wildfire.

The province is pulling in resources from a separate blaze in the area to help fight MNZ003.

On Saturday, evacuation orders were issued for Fort Smith along with Smith’s Landing First Nation in the Northwest Territories, and Fort Fitzgerald, the northern-most community within the RMWB.

Alberta Wildfire is predicting extreme fire behavior over the coming days.

According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, 2023 is the worst year on record for total forest area burned by wildfires.