Fires ignite in high winds

Fire crews in Redcliff requested assistance from the Medicine Hat Fire Department early Wednesday evening as a grassfire sparked south of both the town and the Trans-Canada Highway, about 500 metres from the Access Condos.

Officials said no further assistance was required and crews had extinguished the fire by about 7:15 p.m., before any damage to structures was caused.

Crews remained on scene into the late evening to handle any flare-ups from hot spots.

Earlier in the day, and just one week after devastating prairie fires, Cypress County fire officials battled another grassfire located on the CFB Suffield range, though Wednesday’s was snuffed out before it got out of control.

Deputy fire chief John McBain told the News that county equipment and men had been dispatched to the scene to assist Department of National Defence fire crews.

Officials with CFB Suffield said the blaze was kept entirely inside the military base, where it started in the northwest corner, east of Jenner, and moved a little southeast before being extinguished.

Although the exact cause is not yet known, CFB Suffield has confirmed that no military activities were occurring in that location.

All available on-base resources were called in, as well as help from crews in Medicine Hat, Cypress County, Jenner and Box Springs.

Reports of smoke in Medicine Hat were made at about 4 p.m. when winds gusted to 75 km/h.

Much of southeast and eastern Alberta was under a wind warning on Wednesday. Environment Canada did not predict a top wind speed, though winds were to diminish by late evening when light snow was expected.

The fire comes one week after a major fire in the Hilda area was fanned by extremely high winds. Eventually it pushed well into Saskatchewan before it was extinguished the next day.

Earlier in October, a major fire on the base spread north into Special Areas 2 and burned fields and pasture to the Red Deer River.