Wildfire threatens northern Alberta community [Video]

Dozens of residents of a northern Alberta hamlet were out of their homes Friday as a wildfire threatened their community.

The province said 89 residents of Chipewyan Lake registered at an evacuation centre after they were ordered to leave a day earlier.

“There’s no immediate threat to the community, but the wildfire is threatening the only exit route out,” Stephen Lacroix, with the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, told a news conference.

Residents have been moved to hotels in Slave Lake and Wabasca as well as that town’s sports centre. 

Terah Yellowknee of the Municipal District of Opportunity said the fire remains out of control and is burning towards the community.

Chipewyan Lake is 450 kilometres north of Edmonton.

Lacroix said evacuation alerts for the Janvier Hamlet and Janvier 194 communities, located south of Fort McMurray, remain in place.

He said it’s important for residents in all communities under an alert to be prepared to leave their homes at …