A sign of spring: Wildfire season underway in Alberta

Smoke can be seen from the Devil's Head wildfire west of Calgary on Sept. 28, 2020. (Courtesy Andreas Cordsen)

Believe it or not, wildfire season is underway in Alberta, after starting on March 1.

"We have had 13 already so far this year, since Jan. 1, so the risk is there," said Melissa Story, an information officer with Alberta Wildfire.

During the 2022 season, Alberta recorded 1,246 wildfires which burnt 130,858 hectares of land.

This year, the province is already busy at work adding resources to help bring that number down.

"We've hired on over 400 firefighters to help support our operations." Story said. "This year, we are also taking on 300 support staff. Those people are getting on-boarded as we speak, so they will be sent out to their forest areas pretty quickly and they'll be positioned and ready to fight any forest fires when they come up."

It isn’t just forested areas that are at risk of developing wildfires, officials say grassy areas are also a concern because of how rapidly grassfires can spread in windy conditions.

"We do have a lot of coulee areas and grazing areas, a couple of lake and recreation areas where the grass does tend to grow because they don't graze cattle there or farm it or anything like that, so we have a lot of old, long-dead standing grass,” said Byron Fraser, manager of fire services for Lethbridge County.

In 2022, at least 61 per cent of wildfires in Alberta were found to be caused by humans.

It's a number that has officials across the province concerned.

"Don't throw your cigarette butts out the window. If you're doing grinding or anything like that out in a field, or doing anything that's causing sparks, make sure you have a fire extinguisher there," Fraser said.

In Alberta, wildfire season runs annually from March 1 to Oct. 31.