A change in weather conditions in Alberta, western Canada, helped firefighters combat wildfires that forced about 30,000 residents of the province to flee their homes last week, according to officials from the "Alberta Emergency Management Agency" (AEMA) and "Alberta Wildfire."

"We saw some light scattered rain today in the southern part of the province and even in Fox Creek to the north. The good news is that it had an impact on the behavior of the fires today in that area," said Christie Tucker, Information Unit Manager at Alberta Wildfire, at a press conference yesterday afternoon in Edmonton, Alberta's capital.

"This allowed firefighters the opportunity to work in areas where some wildfires erupted, which they could not approach due to their intensity," Tucker added.

In this context, residents of the area between Marlboro and Chip Lake, including the town of Edson, were able to return to their homes starting at 8 a.m. today, as Yellowhead County lifted the mandatory evacuation order. The county is a rural municipality area.

However, the evacuation order remains in effect for other areas in the county, including those north of Chip Lake.

The county authorities reminded that the fires are still active in those areas.

In Big Lakes County, northwest of Edmonton, the evacuation order was changed to a state of alert. Residents who had to flee the fires can return to their homes but must be ready to leave again within an hour if the situation worsens.

According to the Alberta Wildfire website, there are still 105 wildfires burning in the province, with 27 of them continuing to spread.

Today, Alberta's outgoing Premier Danielle Smith requested Canadian Armed Forces assistance from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to combat the wildfires in the province.

Earlier, Alberta authorities had requested support from 1,100 additional firefighters from other Canadian provinces and U.S. states.

About 80 firefighters from Quebec and Ontario, and around fifteen wildfire specialists from British Columbia joined the firefighting teams in Alberta over the weekend.