100 Mile Fire Rescue were on scene of a wild land fire up on Exeter Road, near the properties of both Dawson and the Marmot Ridge golf course.
Fire Chief Roger Hollander says they got the call Sunday (April 30) afternoon at approximately 1 o’clock.
“When crews arrived they observed a heavy fire front that was in the trees and long standing grass and was approaching the building.” Hollander said, “The person that called it in explained to me that it was maybe 3 feet by 3 feet when they initially saw it and as they were calling 9-1-1 the winds were picking up quite strongly and moved that small fire that was in the ditch into the trees quite rapidly with those fine fuels.”
Hollander said there were there in a matter of minutes and were able to establish a wet line.
“Our priority was to protect the properties and equipment in the Dawson yard.” Hollander said, “We were able to do that with a few of our apparatus fairly quickly and then worked our way into the area that was already burnt.”
Hollander noted that they were on scene for about 2 and half hours and that no structures, no property was damaged other than all of the foliage that was on that empty lot.
“I can certainly say it was human caused. There is some evidence that suggests it was human caused,” Hollander added, “It did appear to start at the ditch line and some witnesses did observe some people in the general area. Nobody was there immediately when these people had phoned 9-1-1 but there were some people in the vicinity that were leaving and this fire was extremely small at the ditch area before the winds picked it up. We are still trying to get more facts as they roll in and we interview witnesses.”
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