The rapid deployment of two provincial helicopters and scores of other emergency equipment to a recent car fire on a highway near Cochrane illustrates the critical level of fire danger across southern Alberta.
“We have 149 firefighters, 18 helicopters, seven air tankers and 17 pieces of equipment … strategically placed throughout the area,” said Wildfire Information Officer Leah Lovequist of Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.
“They’re right by their phones, ready to answer the call and be sent immediately.”
Last Tuesday, a driver along Highway 40 called Rocky View County Fire Services about 2:45 p.m. to report a vehicle on fire. The man – who happened to be an Alberta Environment and Parks staff member – also alerted a forestry duty officer.
The driver of the troubled vehicle had pulled over to the side of the roadway, and flames were licking up against some tall grass.
Lovequist said the report triggered not only a rush of resources from Rocky View Fire – but a “double dispatch” response from the province of two groups of air tankers, two helicopters with firefighters and two groups of heavy equipment.
“Because the conditions are so extreme … We’re sending two of every firefighting resource that’s available. We aim to respond to fires five minutes after they’ve been reported,” she explained. “Conditions are extremely dry. The grass has already died and turned yellow and that means that it’s extremely flammable. Any sort of ignition … can light a fire.”
“It moves fast in grass,” echoed Rocky View County Deputy Fire Chief Gary Barnett, whose staff also responded to the call. “There is that chance of sparking.”
Firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the fire and contain it to the immediate area of the car itself, and no one was injured in the blaze.
While conditions were in their favour that afternoon, Barnett said he knows how quickly that type of scenario could have gotten out of control – especially this year.
“If that had been a windy day,” he said, “I think it could have been different.”
High temperatures and a lack of significant rain over the last two months has created tinderbox conditions across southern Alberta and kept fire officials on tenterhooks for much of the summer season.
Officials issued a fire ban for most of the southwestern section of the province on July 20 – banning briquette barbecues, open fires in campgrounds and more – and earlier this week, restrictions were extended to include off-highway vehicles on public lands across most of the same area.
Violating the fire ban carries a $287 fine from forestry, with a violation of the off-road vehicle restriction set at $585. In Cochrane, lighting a fire pit carries a penalty of $150.
Lovequist said the strict limitations are necessary, since 193 of the 206 wildfires reported so far in the Calgary Forest Area – the driest forested area of the province, which stretches west from Calgary from the Red Deer River south to Waterton Lakes National Park – have been human-caused.
“By banning the use of open fires we are reducing those human-caused fires,” she said, adding the bans are in place as a protective, not a punitive, measure.
“It’s to help protect everyone.”
Fire officials urge anyone who sees smoke or fire to call 911 or 310-FIRE immediately.
