Extreme fire risk in northwest
SASKATOON — Fire conditions are “extreme” this spring in northwestern Saskatchewan and farmers should think twice before planning any controlled burns, says the province’s fire commissioner.
“Extreme doesn’t happen very often but it is certainly the case this year,” Duane Mckay said Friday.
In 2011, Mckay said his office had no reports of grass fires between January and early April. This year, 130 grass fires have been reported to 911 as of April 4.
Although parts of eastern Saskatchewan still have snow, the western half of the province has been unusually dry, with little snowpack that melted earlier and, in some areas, no significant precipitation since last August, McKay said.
“This is a little bit abnormal,” he said.
Likewise, Saskatoon Fire and Protective Services has had a busy spring so far, fighting grass fires on the city’s fringe and beyond.
“With the low snow cover this year, normally the ground is wetter,” said battalion chief Brent Hart. “But since we’ve had very little snow, it’s been very dry, therefore, it makes grass fires more of a concern for us.”
In 2011, the fire department responded to four grass fires between Jan. 1 and April 13. This yearthey have been called to 26 grass fires in that same period.
Helping fight this spring’s fires are two new trucks the city’s fire department put on the road late last year. A new tanker truck can hold more than 11,000 litres of water and a new bush truck goes off-road onto fields and shoots water out of the front bumper in a fan shape.
“You can drive the truck and put out fire at the same time, which is essential in a grass fire because what we’re trying to do is cut it off from spreading, and that’s what it’s good at,” Hart said.
Mckay said in response to last year’s flooding, the Corrections and Public Safety Ministry was asked to create a rapid response plan for disasters in Saskatchewan. It created a Prince Albertbased “hotshots” team that, among other tasks, is trained to fight fires south of the forest line. For the first time this spring, that team is out helping municipal forces fighting any fires beyond their grasp.
“As we identified there could be some problems, we identified a response plan,” Mckay said. “We knew the western side of the province was going to be dry.”
This year, the team has already battled an unusual January grass fire in Maple Creek, spent a week mopping up fires near Sweetgrass First Nation, west of the Battlefords, and is working on Saulteaux First Nation north of the Battlefords, where a fire started on Thursday.
Some grass fires have been destructive, consuming two houses in a Sweetgrass subdivision and threatening several others, destroying two houses on the Red Pheasant reserve and devouring a house on the Saulteaux First Nation Thursday, McKay said. Gusts of wind also helped spread a grass fire near White City Thursday that consumed a barn.
In Saskatoon, firefighters have been called to at least 10 grass fires in the past two weeks, including two on March 31 — one that ate up 200 acres of land near Cranberry Flats and another that threatened power lines in the city’s north end near PBR Auction.