Blackfalds fire crews dealing with grass fires Wednesday

“Embers from the exhaust stack caused the fire,” states Cote.

He admits the wind, however, was at least initially, a significant factor for them.

“There’s a train overpass at Highway 597 and right at the corner edge on the north side, that fire there went all the way into the fire hall and RCMP property,” notes Cote. “So it covered, I’m going to say, eight acres.”

Cote adds there were no injuries and no damage to any structures.

Drayton Bussiere, Fire Chief for Lacombe County, confirmed on Wednesday, a number of grass fires and small ‘spot’ fires along the train tracks near Highway 2A between Blackfalds and Lacombe.

“Often times they blend into one larger fire and it did sound like that’s what happened today,” he explains.

He estimates around a dozen firefighters were in attendance shortly after 12:30 p.m. to fight the flames for at least a couple of hours.

“This is not that abnormal for us,” says Bussiere. “When conditions in the spring start to get dry, we do respond to these probably a few times a year. Usually in the spring and fall when that long grass is super dry is when we see this kind of thing. And often we see roadside fires from smoking and stuff like that increase this time of year.”

“My common message for this time of year though is for people to take a little bit of extra care with burning or driving their lawnmowers in the fields and those types of things,” he points out. “Conditions are dry and fires start easy, so we always just like to ask people to be a little extra cautious this time of yer and be careful with what you’re doing when things are hot or if you’re having camp fires or any of that kind of stuff.”

Central Alberta is currently dealing with warm, windy and dry conditions which make it easier for fires to ignite.

Visit Albertafirebans.ca for more information on fire bans, restrictions and advisories.

by Sheldon Spackman

Blackfalds fire crews dealing with grass fires Wednesday

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