EDMONTON, Alberta, May 15 (UPI) -- At least 27 of 73 wildfires burning in the western Canadian province of Alberta were out of control Sunday, emergency officials in Edmonton said.
The fires were scattered throughout the province, where grasslands and forests are tinder-dry with humidity levels around 15 percent, fire information officer Rob Harris told the Edmonton Journal.
The temperature was around 70 degrees and there were steady winds, making conditions even better for fires, he said.
There was no report of injuries Sunday morning, although numerous evacuations were still in place.
One of them was in the town of Slave Lake in central Alberta, where the province's largest fire had consumed about 1,200 acres in less than three hours, officials said. The town and several others to the east in the fire's path were evacuated, the Journal said.
Saturday night, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were told of a fire burning in a provincial park in Rocky Mountain House, midway between Edmonton and Calgary. Residents were evacuated for several hours before the fire was contained. Power lines were burned, but no structures were damaged, the report said.
Ironically, as the fires burned, two provinces to the east, southern Manitoba was being inundated with flooding.
