Roughly 130 hay bales destroyed in blaze east of Innisfail

“The fact that its hay, it’s deep-seated,” explains Leith. “We had to use some of the colony’s tractors to pull those hay bales out to expose the fire to allow us to extinguish it and actually apply water. Also the challenges in that area of not having the best water supply, hence the reason we had to get support from Elnora and use three water tankers.”

Although no structures were affected, Leith estimates damage to be in the $10,000-$15,000 range.

“We suspect that last year when it came to harvest, the hay bales, sometimes if they harvest when it’s wet, you get a bacterial reaction which causes a heating-up inside the hay,” explains Leith. “With the brisk breeze yesterday afternoon, that’s sometimes sufficient to set the bales on fire and as they were all stacked on top of each other, obviously it would appear that one of them ignited the other 130.”

Leith points out how important it is for landowners and farmers to call them right away if a fire is discovered.

“Especially at this time of year when everything is fairly dry before everything starts to green-up,” he exclaims. “Obviously we had a little bit of rain last night and expected today which will help that but just the diligence of the farmers to call us early so we can get out and protect any structures and prevent it from spreading.”

With numerous Fire Bans and Fire Advisories currently in effect throughout much of central Alberta, Leith strongly encourages all residents to abide by and respect them.

For more details on current Fire Bans and Fire Advisories in Alberta, visit albertafirebans.ca.

by Sheldon Spackman

Roughly 130 hay bales destroyed in blaze east of Innisfail

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