Westlock County firefighters were busy last week, responding to at least 10 brush fires in locations across the county.
Fires burned near Fawcett, Tawatinaw and Linaria, and in each case, county fire chief John Biro said the fires were preventable.
The biggest was on May 5 in the Tawatinaw area, he said, as it took firefighters from Westlock Rural, Clyde, Pickardville and Rochester about five hours to get it under control.
“This wildfire spread deep into the valley,” Biro said. “Crews were faced with steep terrain that made suppression difficult. However, they did an exceptional job stopping this fire from causing destruction.”
County public works crews were on scene again on May 6 to douse any remaining hot spots to ensure the fire didn’t flare up again, he added.
The eight other fires started between the Tawatinaw fire and around 12 a.m. on May 8. Biro said the high winds blowing through the county stirred up dry fuel, which ignited when combined from sparks caused by downed power lines and people doing hot work in grassy areas.
In other cases, the fires were caused by the wind stoking smouldering embers left over from last year’s fire season.
“As the season goes on here, we may get a few more that pop up undetected,” he said.
Biro said it’s crucial people go out and check their fire sites from previous years to ensure there are no remaining embers that could flare up again this year.
He added there were no injuries in any of the fires last week, but many residents lost some belongings.
“Property damage was very low, but we did lose some vehicles and some household items that were scattered throughout people’s yards as the fire went through,” he said.
In addition to the property loss, Biro said the fires claimed countless hours of sleep from the firefighters themselves, who lost many hours of rest while out extinguishing non-stop fires since last Sunday.
They’re all volunteers, Biro said, and with working their day jobs and fighting fires through the night, it’s a lot of hard work and they lose track of time and what day it is.
Biro said people should regularly visit the Alberta Fire Bans website, Westlock County’s website or the Westlock County Fire Services Facebook page to check on the status of any fire advisories or fire bans in the county and across the province.
