-Motorists are being asked to avoid Highway 43 near Highway 32 in Whitecourt, as there was a collision involving a CN train and fuel tanker this morning.
Highway 43 is closed just north of that junction until further notice.
While the fire has now been mostly contained, RCMP say there is still the possibility of an explosion, so they want people to stay away from the area to be safe.

Derek Schofield and his dog were about a football field length away from the site, but Schofield says you could feel the heat when the fireball erupted.

RCMP say there were no fatalities, but there’s a lot of thick, black smoke coming from the collision site.   (photos courtesy of CFCW listener Hugh and Derek Schofield)

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-Edmonton police have hit a 23-year old city man with a list of charges, following a deadly incident on the Capilano Bridge in late June.
Police say a truck had been speeding northbound in the southbound lanes of Wayne Gretzy Drive, narrowly missing a police vehicle before slamming into a small SUV that was right behind the patrol vehicle.
A 20-year old woman in the passenger seat of the SUV died at the scene, while the 31-year old man behind the wheel suffered critical injuries, and he’s still in that condition in the hospital.
The Edmonton man who’s been charged in the case also wound up with critical injuries to start, while a 21-year old woman with him had serious, non-life-threatening injuries.
Police have charged 23-year old Tryton Desjarlais with a series of impaired driving offences, dangerous driving and driving while unauthorized.

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-Alberta has squared off against the feds and their new draft regulations for net-zero power grid emissions.
Environment Minister Rebecca Schultz says they’ll be looking it over very carefully, but she says they want to make it clear that Alberta will not be implementing them, because they are not achievable or affordable in this province.
The feds want Canada’s power grid “cleaned” by 2035, and say gas-powered plants would be used to support green power as a backup.
Schultz says those plants aren’t something you can just shove in the back of the cupboard and take out when you need them.
She says they’ll keep talking with Ottawa, but if they can’t come to an agreement, she says Alberta will chart its own course.

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-Ottawa got hit with a deluge of rain yesterday, as between 75 and 100mm fell in just 90 minutes.
It was too much for the drainage system, and there was flooding, road closures and power outages as a result.

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-Canadians who live part-time on Maui say the wildfires that tore through parts of the island this week, aren’t like anything anyone there has ever gone through before.
Thousands of buildings and structures have been destroyed, at least 55 people are confirmed dead and about 13-hundred people lost their homes.
Some victims were trapped in their vehicles as they were trying to escape the flames.
People who did escape say they didn’t even realize there was a danger until the fires were upon them, because the island’s siren warning system didn’t go off.
This morning, authorities say the fires moved so quickly, there wasn’t time to activate the sirens.
Global Affairs Canada issued a warning yesterday, asking Canadians to not travel to Maui unless it’s absolutely necessary.
WestJet and Air Canada are implementing cancellation and rebooking policies.

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-If you’ve got plans to head to BC, the province is about to be hit by another heat wave.
That sweltering system is supposed to kick in Sunday and stick around for most of next week, as temps hit the high 30’s.
BC is already dealing with drought conditions, and has been torched by several wildfires this year.
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-Harvest is already well underway in southern Alberta, as crops are done, given how dry it’s been this year in that part of the province.
Many farmers are looking at a 40 to 60-percent yield or less.
Some say it could lead to higher food prices at some point.
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-Edmonton police have charged a 41-year old Manitoba man, after four teenage girls say they were sexually assaulted at the West Edmonton Mall waterpark this week.
The girls say they were touched inappropriately while they were in the wave pool.
Since June, there have been four cases of alleged sexual assaults at the waterpark.
Suspects have been charged in those cases as well.

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-There was a small plane crash near High River yesterday afternoon.
RCMP say two people wound up with serious injuries when the craft went down in a field near the Regional Airport.
Transportation Safety Board officials are now trying to find out what happened.
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-Cold Lake Council has decided it’s not worth it to set up a glass recycling program.
Glass was actually removed from Cold Lake’s list of recyclable material about four years ago, because it was considered too expensive to deal with.
Residents have been asking about it lately, but when council looked into it, they discovered there’s nothing in place to use the glass for anything, and it would either wind up in storage or thrown into a landfill, despite residents going through the trouble of recycling.
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-The Edmonton Elks now hold the record for the longest home losing streak in professional sports history in North America, as they lost to the Bombers last night.
They were actually up by 22 points at half-time, and then Winnipeg came back to win 38-29.

-Guardians beat the Jays 4-3 yesterday. The Jays meet the Cubs just after 5 this afternoon. (You won’t be able to watch it unless you have Apple TV.)
Former slugger Jose Bautista is going to sign a one-day contract with the Jays this afternoon to officially retire as a member. Fan can watch that online at 12:30 on the Jays’ social media channels.
They’re holding a ceremony for him tomorrow at Rogers Centre.

-The Alberta Indigenous Games are on in Edmonton, as about 5000 young athletes are taking part in the fun and action over the next few days.