Father, son burned in grass fire in intensive care

A father and son who were badly burned while fighting a grass fire on their land in southwestern Saskatchewan are still in a Calgary hospital’s intensive care unit.

The family of Ron Wedrick and his son, Evan, said they are being treated at the Foothills Medical Centre by a team of burn treatment specialists.

The two men, who are 43 and 25, were first taken to hospitals near their Gull Lake property on Tuesday before being airlifted to Calgary.

A family statement said Ron Wedrick’s wife and their two daughters — as well as Evan’s wife and their newborn daughter — were with the injured men in hospital on Thursday.

Grass fires whipped up by high winds gusting to more than 100 kilometres an hour threatened several towns and villages in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan this week.

A family friend said Ron is stable and able to communicate by writing, but his son’s condition is critical.

A GoFundMe page started by Kaile Migneault has raised more than $50,000 for the family in less than 24 hours.

“While most families were at home taking shelter from the storm, Ron Wedrick and his son Evan were out fighting fires,” Migneault wrote on the page.

A GoFundMe page was also collecting money for the widow and four young children of James Hargrave, a volunteer firefighter from Alberta, who was killed when the water truck he was driving rolled before being hit by a pickup truck.

The fires in the two provinces spread quickly and prompted a several evacuation orders — all of which had been lifted by Thursday.

About 150 evacuees from Coleman, a mountain community in Alberta’s Crowsnest Pass, were the last to be allowed to return.

An Alberta Emergency Alert said the fire in that regional was being held and an evacuation order had been lifted.

Although residents were free to return, as long as they obtained re-entry permits and information packages, they were being asked to avoid the area if possible to allow emergency crews to continue their work.