Westlock County firefighters were kept busy last Friday when they had to deal with two stubble fires northwest of Westlock.
Both fires took place in the afternoon of Sept. 19, but they required considerably different amounts of effort to get under control or extinguish.
The second, larger fire took place along Highway 661, west of Highway 776 in the late afternoon and into the night. County fire chief John Biro said he was on scene until around 2 a.m. Saturday morning.
Biro explained the fire started as a result of a landowner tending to a peat fire on his property. A gust of wind suddenly came up and blew some of the fire into the stubble from a recent harvest and the fire “took off across the field.”
Due to the location, Biro said cell reception was rather poor and the landowner struggled to contact 911, but he eventually succeeded.
Fire crews from several departments responded to the fire and remained there for “quite a while” to get the flames under control — since the original fire was from a peat pile, and there were gusty winds, it took a while.
The way the wind was blowing, Biro said there was the threat of the fire jumping the road and ending up in the adjacent fields, so firefighters set about building a fireguard around the field.
“We ended up basically setting up some spot patrols as well as we made sure the ditch up to the road was fully extinguished so we didn’t have any debris rolling across the road,” he said.
Thanks to the dry and windy conditions, Biro said all firefighters could do is sit and watch the fire and react to how it moves. He said attempting to break up the peat pile could do more harm than good, so they’ll have to wait until there is rain to dampen the pile to be able to get a better handle on it.
As of Sept. 20, firefighters were continuing to monitor the situation.
He added the pile will have to be fully extinguished before the winter.
Shortly after noon on Sept. 19, a stubble fire was found in a recently harvested field on the west side of Range Road 270 north of Township Road 602.
Biro said the land had been harvested about three to four days before, and the suspected cause is something hot that fell off one of the vehicles involved in the harvest.
He said the land has a lot of peat, so whatever started the fire likely sat there smouldering until the moisture on Friday morning dissipated.
“Once it warmed up that day, with the winds it took off in the stubble and became a running fire,” Biro said.
The way the wind was blowing, the fire could have threatened the homes lying to the south of the fire, he said.
Roughly 16 acres were burned in the fire, and it took crews roughly 90 minutes to get it extinguished.
Biro said county fire crews have been on high alert since Sept. 16 because of the dry conditions.
With the dry conditions, which include the winds and the recent harvest, he said outside fires run the risk of getting out of control. He’s encouraging everyone planning to burn to be prepared to control the fire, including having equipment on hand to put out the flames or at least stall their movement.
