Several fires tore through the local countryside last weekend, and some continue to rage as prevailing winds and warm temperatures compound the danger level.
Just east of Athabasca along Highway 827 near Township Road 660, a fire tore through a field and spread into the neighbouring forest.
Ron Jackson, Athabasca County director of emergency services, said the fire was caused by a hold over campfire that reignited when strong winds stoked it up.
Local firefighters were on the scene battling the grass fire when Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) arrived in a helicopter, which landed in the recently burnt field. After a crew jumped out of the chopper and unloaded their equipment, the chopper took to the sky and began fighting the forest fire from above. At the same time, bulldozer operators were pushing down the forest, driving around the blaze making cat lines to hold the fire in quarantine.
“That one I would call under control, but it’s not extinguished,” Jackson said Monday morning. “We have people watching it.”
There was another fire between Athabasca and secondary Highway 812 south of Highway 2, Jackson said. That fire was a “smaller area, but nonetheless was right close to some unbroken bush,” he explained.
That fire was responded to quickly, as a local landowner fought the blaze until the Baptiste Lake, Town of Athabasca, and Athabasca County fire departments backed him up, Jackson said.
East of the Village of Boyle, another fire burned just south of Caslan.
“Caslan was definitely caused by a holdover winter burning, and as far as I know it’s extinguished,” said Jackson.
The County turned the Caslan fire over to the landowners after it was deemed under control, he said. “I checked on (the landowner) Sunday morning and at that point it was all under control,” Jackson said.
Also ablaze was Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries’ hog pile, which was noticed at about 1 p.m. Sunday and under control by 10 p.m., said Karl Kopan, communications specialist for Al-Pac.
“The material is called hog fuel and this is comprised of bark that we remove from the logs,” said Kopan. “We burn this in our power boilers to create steam and power for the mill.”
“They were assisted by Grassland and Boyle fire departments,” Jackson said of the hog pile fire. “Because that is in the forest protection area, SRD moved in to assist.”
Jackson said that fire was turned back over to Al-Pac staff Monday morning for them to manage.
On Monday morning, Jackson was at another fire scene by Ellscott, which he described as being “not even close” to contained.
Fire crews battled the Ellscott blaze all night, and at around 2 a.m.,70-80 km/hr winds kicked up the fire.
“Essentially there was a 16-17 (per-cent) humidity, which is extremely dry, and it stayed at around 16 degrees, so that’s what they call a crossover, which is extremely dangerous,” Jackson said.
“That’s our biggest challenge right now is with the wind and stuff there is a lot of spotting … like 100, 200, 300 feet in front of where we are trying to maintain a control,” Jackson explained.
As of Monday morning over one hundred fires are burning in Alberta according to Jeff Driscoll, wildfire information officer.
