Firefighters battling a huge wildfire northeast of the city got help from Mother Nature and enjoyed some good fortune late Tuesday, allowing evacuated residents in Sturgeon County to return to their homes.
The massive fire, which began last week in Thorhild County, was poised on Tuesday to jump firebreaks and spread into Sturgeon County threatening several homes.
Several Sturgeon residents had left their homes when officials ordered precautionary evacuations for seven residents before the wind direction began to change and put the homes out of danger.
Sturgeon County deputy fire Chief Pat Mahoney said the wind change gave crews the opening to get ahead of the fire.
“The winds reduced and they changed direction a little bit and it just gave a bit of a reprieve to allow the air tankers and the guys on the ground to gain the upper hand and hold the line.”
The blaze has torn through a 3,000-hectare piece of land, mostly near Opal in Thorhild County, just north of the Sturgeon County border.
Sturgeon firefighters were helping crews from Thorhild County along with more than 200 firefighters from the provincial Sustainable Resource Department (SRD).
Don Livingston, SRD’s incident commander, said the fire was very close to breaching the line firefighters had established and a number of factors kept it from spreading.
“It was a little bit of luck, a lot of aircraft. The crews were working pretty hard and there was a little bit of a wind shift, it was more of a glancing blow than head on.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, SRD classified the fire as being held, which means it is contained within boundaries they established. Flames have been snuffed in places near those boundaries.
Air crews, including 10 helicopters, were pulled off the fire Wednesday. Livingstone said they are reserved for serious or out of control fires.
“They are an expensive resource, so if you don’t need them there is no use having them sit here.”
Livingston said the SRD firefighters on the ground would remain in place and that he was hoping to add to them to attack the fire.
“We are looking at ramping up, because a lot of the rest of the province got wet and so we are looking at bringing some crews in.”
The fire received a little less than five millimetres of rain Wednesday, which also helped dampen the flames.
Mahoney said Sturgeon pulled most of its equipment and people out Wednesday and would be completely removed from the site by the end of day.
If Thorhild needed the help again crews could return, he added.
The fire has put a strain on Sturgeon’s volunteer firefighters Mahoney said, but the load has been spread as wide as possible.
“I have tried to manage my resources over the last few days by sharing the workload amongst the seven departments and ensuring that we always had at least two departments in reserve for Sturgeon.”
The cooler weather has done nothing to change the county’s fire ban, which remains in effect.
With the long weekend approaching, Sturgeon wants people to be extra careful while outdoors or using off-road equipment like ATVs.
“We want to people to go out and enjoy their weekend, but be vigilant and cautious as well.”
The fire destroyed one rural home and several farm outbuildings.
