ESTEVAN - Estevan’s firefighters dedicated many hours to combatting a trio of grass fires that occurred in the area last week.
The first fire was a few kilometres south of the city’s landfill on Oct. 12. Fire Chief Rick Davies said the Estevan Fire Rescue Service (EFRS) was called about the fire at approximately 5:30 p.m.
“Crews responded and obviously with the high winds, we struggled to gain control of the fire for a little while. Crews worked until about midnight, when we were able to create a perimeter,” said Davies.
A crew of four members remained at the scene throughout the night to monitor the area. Another crew took over the following morning.
The area has a lot of trees and difficult terrain, which posed a challenge, Davies said.
As of Oct. 17, the fire department had not been able to fully extinguish the blaze. Rotating crews continued to monitor the fire and contain hot spots until Oct. 16, when more firefighters returned to extinguish as many of the hot spots as possible.
“As far as we can tell, everything on forward progression lines is extinguished. It’s a large area that’s got a lot of deadfall, so you’re going to have some smouldering trees and things like that which are going to continue to burn, probably for a day or two yet.”
But with the work of the crews on Oct. 16 and the help of farmers in the area who will monitor it, they hope it’s all wrapped up.
Westmoreland Mining LLC provided use of their large water trucks along their property and the RM of Estevan also provided their water trucks. Farmers cultivated some areas.
While the EFRS had a crew at that first scene, firefighters were called to another one south of Macoun at about 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 13.
“Due to the wind conditions, it was very fast moving,” said Davies. “As many Estevan crews that could respond did so.”
The Midale/Cymri Fire and Rescue & First Responders also provided assistance. The EFRS spent about four hours at the scene.
Davies noted the fire near Macoun was likely the most serious one they faced, as the fire did blow through numerous farm yards.
“We were fortunate enough that with the wind and the speed and the fire load, that there was no significant damage to any buildings, but definitely the potential was there,” said Davies.
Davies praised the efforts of farmers to help contain the fire.
“Pulling up on scene, with the amount of smoke that we had, not really knowing what’s going on, there were people that were coming from all directions with tractors and discers [disc harrows] and water trucks, and you name it, it was huge. A huge help.”
He believes there were at least a dozen farmers who helped with the response.
A wind warning was issued for the Estevan area on both Oct. 12 and 13. According to Environment Canada, the winds topped out at 104 kilometres per hour on Oct. 12 and 96 km/h the following day.
The final blaze was a grass fire near the junction of Highways 18 and 47 in front of the SRI Homes property on Oct. 15. The call came in at around 11 a.m. and firefighters spent around two hours at the scene.
The fire was burning in a ditch near a field. It consumed dry vegetation in the ditch on the north side of Highway 18.
Visibility was reduced on Highway 18 at the time of the fire and motorists were asked to exercise caution when passing through the area.
Davies noted there weren’t any injuries that he was aware of from the fires, and no significant damage to properties occurred, either.
A cause of the fires has yet to be determined.
