Snow last week was greeted with relief in the Alberta counties of Lethbridge and Warner, where Nov. 27 grass fires burned several hundred acres of farmland and threatened the outskirts of Lethbridge.
Darryl Beaton, emergency services co-ordinator for the County of Lethbridge, said 600 acres of land were burned in the fire, pushed by sustained winds of 100 to 120 km/h with gusts to 130. The fire started on the Blood Indian reserve, leaped the Oldman River and then forced the evacuation of homes west of Coalhurst, Alta.
Cause of the blaze has not been officially announced, but Dana Terry, deputy chief of the Lethbridge Fire Department, confirmed other media reports that it began when several people lit a fire to heat rocks for a sweat lodge.
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It spread out of control by high winds despite efforts to extinguish it.
Beaton said every fire department in the county responded to the fire. Because of its speed, he said major damage to pasture was unlikely.
“The speed that this fire passed through the area was so fast that it would be hard to imagine that there’s much damage below grade or below the surface,” said Beaton. “It was very fast.”
No losses to buildings or livestock were reported, but fences and power poles were damaged.
A fire in the County of Warner, which also spread during high winds Nov. 27, damaged corrals, fences and winter pasture, said county administrator Shawn Hathaway. A grain bin and one bovine were also lost. The cause had yet to be determined as of Dec. 5.
Hathaway said officials were still calculating the number of acres burned.
That fire burned near the Miami Hutterite Colony, forcing the evacuation of its residents.
Fire departments battled for 13 hours, and then spent several days extinguishing hot spots before widespread snowfall solved the problem.
