Progress against Verdant Creek fire

Some areas reopen as crews battle 4,100-hectare blaze

Sunshine Village and a portion of Brewster Creek have been re-opened, while Parks Canada continues to manage the Verdant Creek wildfire.

Fire crews have made significant progress in halting the spread of the wildfire, which was mapped at approximately 4,100 hectares on Friday. It does not pose any immediate threat to nearby communities.

Environment Canada meteorologist Kirk Torneby said smoke in Calgary is the most we’ll see in the short term.

“There are some fairly strong northwestern winds, so that’s moving a little bit of smoke off the mountains and the fires as well,” said Torneby.

Despite winds clocked at 85 km/h late Sunday evening, he said they had little effect on the spread of smoke. Instead they pushed anything off the ground back towards the mountains.

But, things are likely to change over the next few days.

“We may not be out of the woods in terms of wildfire smoke transport, but it shouldn’t be as widespread or as far into the province or into Saskatchewan as we have seen in the last few weeks,” said Torneby.

The Verdant Creek wildfire has been blazing for more than a week and at one point went within 2.5 kilometres of Sunshine Village and 24 kilometres of Banff.

Hiking tails in Sunshine Village remain closed and a fire ban remains in effect in Banff and Kootenay national parks, to avoid the possibility of human-caused fires.