(Kimberly Bateman)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

extinguished

Crews knock down eight kilometres of fire near Alix

Apr 25, 2019 | 4:02 PM

Emergency crews battled close to a dozen fires along an eight kilometre stretch of land in Lacombe County on Thursday afternoon.

Fire Chief Drayton Bussiere says they responded around 2 p.m. to the numerous blazes, which are now under control.

The investigation has determined they were caused by the sparks from a train passing through the Alix area and close to Haunted Lakes Golf Course.

Lacombe County is currently under a fire advisory, he notes.

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“We deal with a few of these a year. When it’s really dry, we’re more at risk,” Bussiere says.

“The entire eight kilometres were on fire.”

Some buildings were threatened, but crews and favourable wind directions prevented any structures from being torched.

There were, however, some stretches of fencing that were destroyed, and a small portion of the golf course was on fire, according to Bussiere. Damage estimates are unknown.

Thankfully, there are no reports of injury.

Bussiere adds that the incident can be used as a reminder to citizens to not be careless during these dry conditions by doing something as avoidable as tossing a cigarette butt out a car window.

(Kim Ortwein-Sawyer)

Which company was operating the train, and what it was carrying are unknown, and there are no charges at this time.

Crews from Blackfalds, Lacombe, Clive, Alix, Bashaw, Stettler, Dow Chemicals and Nova Chemicals provided mutual aid to Lacombe County members during the response.