Last Tuesday’s thunderstorm may have produced hail and knocked over trees in different parts of the county, but very little property damage was reported to the RCMP and local fire departments.
In town, the only call firefighters received was around 8:45 p.m. for a downed power line at a residence in the area of 103 Street between 104 Avenue and 105 Avenue, said town fire chief Stuart Koflick.
He explained a tree fell on a service line leading to a house, causing the line to detach from the house.
“There was some concern at that point that the residents might have been trapped inside their house because of the positioning of the electrical line,” he said.
It turned out the line was positioned so the residents could get out, Koflick said. Fortis arrived on scene to isolate the line, and had power restored to the residents on the morning of July 3.
Given the weather conditions earlier in the day, Koflick said the town was lucky the damage caused wasn’t any worse.
“With the humidity and how hot it was yesterday, I was actually expecting the storm to wreak quite a bit of destruction,” he said. “We were very fortunate.”
Westlock County’s fire departments received two calls during the storm.
The first came in at around 8:45 p.m. for a downed power line about half a mile north of the town line on Highway 44, said county fire chief John Biro.
A tree limb had fallen and knocked down the line, causing it to arc and light a nearby spruce tree on fire. Westlock Rural responded to the scene and extinguished the flames after the power company had shut off the power.
The second call was for what Biro described as “a red glare on the horizon” up near the Dapp Corner Store. Jarvie firefighters and Biro responded to that call, but ultimately were not able to find anything.
Biro said he suspects the caller had actually seen the sunset. He explained that might have been the case because when he was driving north on the highway, the rain was so heavy it was like sheets on the road, and perhaps the sun was being reflected through the storm and looked like something burning.
Despite the call being a false alarm, Biro said it was better to be safe than sorry in calling in something that looked like it a fire.
With many lightning strikes during the storm, he said the risk of structures getting hit and catching on fire was higher.
In addition, he said the lightning strikes pose a risk for the rest of the summer as well.
If lightning hit the peat-covered areas of the county, the flames could smoulder until it gets drier.
“If it turns out to be a little drier throughout the season, we could have holdover fires that could pop up later in the year,” Biro said.
Westlock RCMP had no calls to respond to during or after the storm, according to Const. Dave Wilejto.
“Nothing that came as a result of the storm,” he said. “People stay in and sometimes that’s a good thing for us. It keeps things quieter.”
