After fighting a large blaze days earlier at an acreage off Highway 762, the Foothills Fire Dept. was called back on Dec. 3 for reports of flare-ups in the wooded area at the back of the property.
“We were out all day at that (Dec. 1) event, and we’ve had people out every day since,” said Foothills fire captain Alex Marshall, who was coordinating Friday’s efforts to maintain a firewatch over the coming days.
Despite freezing rain and snowfall, the fire was able to smoulder in the root systems under loose dry earth.
“It’s quite forested out here and the fire’s gotten into the tree roots and is travelling underground and popping up at different areas,” Marshall said. “So we’re continually finding new areas and trying to put out those hot spots.”
The original fire had started when the strong winds of Nov. 30 downed trees and power lines, sparking fires across southern Alberta.
“We have firewatch on scene and we have firetrucks continually here 24/7 keeping an eye on it, making sure it’s not threatening any homes or structures, and that it’s not growing on us,” he said, adding firefighters were only working in the thick brush during daylight hours for safety reasons.
“This area is really, really steep terrain with a lot of wooded areas and it’s making it very difficult to get water to where the fire location is—it’s about a kilometre from any road, so we’re doing relay pumping and using forestry pumps and ATVs to get personnel, equipment, and water back to where the fire and hotspots are actually sitting.”
Additional firefighters were called in from High River to bolster numbers as well.
The bizarre situation of fighting a brush fire in winter conditions is a double-edged sword.
“It’s actually helping us out, the snow is helping knock down some of the fire that’s back there,” Marshall said.
“But it’s also making life a little more difficult; we’re climbing pretty steep hills, trucks are getting stuck, and we had to get Foothills public works out here with graders and sanders to make the roads a little better for our water trucks going back and forth.
“There’s the risk of people slipping and sliding down the hill, but so far we haven’t had any injuries on scene so that’s good, but the snow is not helping in those regards.”
Despite the conditions, the fire captain certainly prefers the current weather to the typical summer brush fire season.
“This area is really dry with a lot of dead fall on the ground, and if this happened in July, it would be a terrible situation and would be burning for quite some time and quite difficult to contain,” Marshall said.
Despite the original fire having passed nearby, the residence located at the property remained completely unscathed, which Marshall credited largely to the FireSmart measures taken by landowners, keeping the treeline far from the home and keeping nearby grass and brush trimmed.
