Canada

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Grass fire and smoke stop traffic on Highway 509 on the Blood Reserve west of Lethbridge, Alberta on Monday Sept. 10, 2012. A rapidly moving grass fire in southern Alberta has prompted officials to order everyone in a town southeast of Calgary to evacuate. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jaime Vedres

High winds were fuelling a massive grass fire in southern Alberta on Monday, prompting precautionary evacuations in at least three communities.

However, conditions were improving by late evening with officials saying water bombers had managed to knock back the flames, and cooler temperatures were also helping.

Residents of Coalhurst and Milk River, with populations of 2,200 and 800 respectively, were ordered out of their homes, along with rural residents in the region.

A mobile home park in the much larger city of Lethbridge was also cleared and the city declared a state of emergency.

Evacuees from Coalhurst and Lethbridge were being directed to congregate at three points, a gymnasium in Lethbridge, the Enmax building in Lethbridge and the community centre in Picture Butte.

The people of Milk River were told to go to the nearby town of Raymond.

Barbara Edgecombe-Green, spokeswoman for the town of Coalhurst, said police went door-to-door telling people to get out immediately.

The town supplied a bus for people who had no transportation.

"For the moment the town is not affected, but we are in direct line of the fire, so to make sure everyone is safe, we are evacuating the town," Edgecombe-Green said Monday afternoon.

Residents who made it to the evacuation centre in Picture Butte said it was a nerve-wracking trip on a normally quiet highway now jammed with cars.

Once they got there, they were told it would be several hours before they would know if they could return home or would have to stay out for the night.

Dora Entz left town with her two sons and two daughters; her husband had been on his way home from Lethbridge and simply diverted to meet them in Picture Butte.

Entz said her son learned of the evacuation when he went to get gas.

"The police got out and said to him ... Coalhurst is now evacuated."

She said she heard the police issuing evacuation orders on a loudspeaker as they drove down the street in front of her house.

"I never expected that we would be evacuated," she said. "It was such a long wait until we got out of Coalhurst. Everybody was just rushing to get out. People wanted to come back and the police wouldn't let them, so they had to turn around. It was a hustle."

She said she left her home with little in the way of possessions.

"Just my dog," she said. "The kids wanted their dog and their cat. And the cat threw up in my van. Not used to driving."