{"id":646132,"date":"2026-05-04T00:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T00:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/646132\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T00:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T00:46:11","slug":"sandy-beach-alta-residents-remain-on-evacuation-standby-as-wildfire-burns-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/646132\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandy Beach, Alta. residents remain on evacuation standby as wildfire burns homes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tDescrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tIncrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>Residents of <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/sandy-beach\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sandy Beach<\/a>, Alta., say they are on edge as a wildfire burns down homes and a local officials issue a state of emergency.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The wildfire alert is in effect for anyone along Lake Shore Drive on the east side of Sandy Lake.<\/p>\n<p>According to a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SturgeonCounty\/posts\/pfbid029xwmJUA9N61SCFEaHk44odQQZ81RA9MZrqioiESgZx45K4WVE1GMtKHCQLMANCwUl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> Facebook post by Sturgeon County<\/a>, the fire has claimed at least three homes and damaged a fourth. No injuries have been reported.<\/p>\n<p>More than 60 firefighters were on scene from multiple jurisdictions, including Morinville, Alexander First Nation, Parland County, and Lac Ste. Anne County.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArriving on scene, they found cabins fully engulfed in flames, which were also spreading to trees and surrounding grass\u201d, Chad Moore, Sturgeon County fire chief and manager of protective services, told Global News on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast night, (crews) finished a dozer guard wrapping around a fire and returning this morning to do a full mop up and see if it\u2019s officially out,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767930311_275_national.jpg\" alt=\"Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won't miss a trending story.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n<p>Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won&#8217;t miss a trending story.<\/p>\n<p>The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but Moore said it started in one residence and spread to another.<\/p>\n<p>He confirmed the fire is now contained, but added there are fears the fire situation could change.<\/p>\n<p>Environment Canada is forecasting winds from the northwest at about 40 km\/h on Sunday with gusts up to 60 km\/h.<\/p>\n<p>Fire officials say that a change in wind direction could spread to Lakeshore Drive and could prompt an evacuation alert.<\/p>\n<p>A fire ban was issued Saturday at around 5:30 p.m. A state of local emergency was declared for the area around 9:30 p.m. that night.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Canada<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Jonathan Bodnar witnessed the fire.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe flame actually jumped over and began escalating the smoke into the air and blackened really badly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Bodnar also said he\u2019s grateful for the quick response from fire crews.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone is going to think twice about burning stuff in the backyard. Fires will be limited here for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Sandy Beach is located about 65 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'Unseasonably warm temperatures hit BC'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6P_UNSEASONABLY_WARM-PK_OM01U1BX.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:04<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUnseasonably warm temperatures hit BC\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\tPrevious Video<\/p>\n<p>\t\tNext Video<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Descrease article font size Increase article font size Residents of Sandy Beach, Alta., say they are on edge&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5967,49,48,44,240407],"class_list":["post-646132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta-wildfires","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-sandy-beach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}