Winds and fire had emergency crews busy fighting fires and dealing with debris overnight in the western Foothills overnight.
Black Diamond Fiire Chief Jamie Campbell said his fire department along with Turner Valley, Longview, Priddis, Redwood Meadows, Okotoks and the County fire departments responded to fires in Turner Valley, just south of the Quirk Creek Gas Plant west of Millarville and on Plummers Road. "Pretty much the west side of the county was busy last night,” Campbell said.
Black Diamond, Turner Valley, Priddis and other areas in the western Foothills experienced strong winds in the late hours of Tuesday night (Nov. 30) into the early hours of Wednesday morning (Dec. 1), downing power poles and trees.
A fire was reported at around 11 p.m. at a private property south of the Quirk Creek Gas Plant. “The wind blew a big pine tree over on top of the power line and broke the power pole and the lines sparked and ignited the grass on fire,” he said.
The fire spread over a couple of acres and within a half kilometre of some structures, including barns and homes.
A fire engine was dispatched to that fire in case firefighters needed to spray down the house and create a fire break, Campbell said, but they did not have to use it.
The fire department was able to refill their water tankers at the Quirk Creek Gas Plant and they were able to put the fire out in about four hours.
Another fire was called in at around 1 a.m. Wednesday near the Turner Valley gas plant.
“Because we had a power outage, I’m guessing, they were flaring, but they were flaring for sure and we think a spark flew out of the flare stack and landed in the dry grass across the road and started that fire,” he said.
The Turner Valley fire covered about an acre and came within a few hundred yards of nearby structures. Campbell said that fire was out within a couple of hours.
A third grass fire near Plummers Road was being attacked overnight and into the day Wednesday.
Fortis is reporting power outages for more than 400 customers between Priddis and Millarville and six households south of Black Diamond. Power is expected to be restored by 4 p.m.
Environment Canada reported winds gusting between and 56-63 km/h in the Black Diamond area between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m.Campbell responded to the fire near the Quirk Creek Gas Plant and he said the wind was blowing extremely hard.
“It was crazy,” he said. “I’m going to say probably 110 km/h gusts…The winds were easily sustained at 70 km/h and gusting over 100.”
The wind warning for Okotoks west to Bragg Creek and south to Longview was lifted at 10:51 a.m. on Dec. 1.
Environment Canada issued a wind warning for southern Alberta Tuesday. Parts of southwest Alberta experienced high winds of more than 130 km/h.
Campbell said they were also responding to downed trees and calls from residents concerned about unstable trees.
“Last night we went to somebody who has dead tree in their yard and they were worried it was going to fall on their gas line, so we had to go stabilize that tree in the middle of all this,” he said.
“There were lights hanging off buildings by wires that we had to go to. We had some trees that snapped that were on the road so we had to go move them and that was just in town.”
