An intense grass fire raged through southwestern Saskatchewan last weekend, burning thousands of acres of old vegetation in Grasslands National Park.
Larry Grant, reeve of the Rural Municipality of Val Marie, said the fire started sometime before noon April 27 and was under control by about 10 the next morning.
It began on agricultural land outside park boundaries two kilometres west of Highway 4 and 10 lm south of Val Marie.
Winds gusting to 100 km-h fanned the flames, which jumped the highway, a grid road and the Frenchman River at least two times as it made its way through the park.
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Superintendent Katherine Patterson said April 29 a helicopter will be used to confirm how much area was burned, but initial estimates are 5,500 acres.
“It was about a 20 km swath, varying from one to five km wide,” she said.
Grant said he has never seen a fire like it.
“It’s the worst I’ve seen because of the length of time,” he said.
“Maybe (others have been) as intense but very short lived.”
He said the fire moved so fast it went through a new campground in the park without burning a picnic table.
It destroyed an abandoned house, a small feed stack and kilometres of fence.
The cause of the fire is unknown, but Grant said humidity in the area was only 18 percent, temperatures were warm and conditions were dry.
As many as 200 people were fighting the fire at times, including Parks Canada staff from Banff, Alta., and provincial firefighters from Prince Albert, Alta.
However, Grant said many locals came out, unasked, with water tanks, shovels and equipment. Many stayed through the night.
He said one man came from 100 km away to help.
“Down in this southwest area, people maybe don’t have the formal training in fighting fire but they have a lot of experience, a lot of common sense and they are good at it,” he said.
Just about every ranch has an old sprayer that has been converted to spray water on fires, he added, but many just weren’t ready to go yet.
“One of our grader operators said a week ago he was plowing snow and now he is plowing fire guards,” Grant said.
Grass fires have been reported elsewhere in southwestern Saskatchewan.
Duane McKay, executive director of emergency management and fire safety with the provincial government, said the province has moved a cache of firefighting equipment into the Swift Current area and cautioned people to be careful when it’s so hot, dry and windy.
