A viewer submitted video of the fire at Atton's Lake (Submitted/Tanya Wasmuth)

By Angela Brown

Close call

Firefighters, parks team, campers and farmers help put out park fire at Atton’s Lake

May 23, 2023 | 2:34 PM

It was a close call Saturday night when some brush caught fire at Atton’s Lake Regional Park, near Cut Knife, and spread to an area of about 200 feet x 500 feet of parkland, between the campgrounds and the ball diamonds.

Fortunately, no injuries were reported, and no structures were damaged in the blaze.

Cut Knife and District Fire Association firefighters attended the fire after being called out at about 9:40 p.m.

Fire Chief Brett Robertson said it took crews about an hour to first get the fire knocked down.

“We were on scene until approximately 1:30 a.m. knocking out hot spots,” he said.

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The cause of the fire is still not known and is being investigated.

Robertson noted a ban on burning was in effect for the area but doesn’t believe anyone had an open fire at the campgrounds at the time of the incident.

“There were no visible signs of a campfire that I had seen on-scene,” he said. “But I don’t know for sure.”

On whether the fire could have been caused by a smoldering cigarette, Robertson said that’s a possibility, but it’s not confirmed.

“It was so dry and with all the poplar [tree] fuzz and the dense, dry vegetation in the bush. It wouldn’t take much to [cause] a spark,” he added.

Robertson mentioned many people around the park also helped contain the fire before fire crews arrived.

“We’re a good 20- to 25-minute drive from the park from where our fire hall is,” he said. “I can’t comment on who or what was done before we got there, but there were definitely people at the park helping extinguish the fire.”

A video of the blaze was submitted to battlefordsNOW as some high school students were in the park when the blaze happened. Fortunately, they escaped safely.

People used shovels, pails of water – and “anything they could get their hands on” to try to douse the fire.

Parks staff helped, as well as some local farmers who brought water trailers to ensure firefighters had enough water to access to put out the blaze.

There were cabins and structures on two sides of the area near the fire. That’s where the firefighter crews focused their efforts.

Robertson reminds people again as a caution to heed all fire bans when they are in effect. Since they are imposed for a reason.

“It’s so dry that it’s like it’s gasoline.”

Robertson said the park fire could have been a lot worse, adding that “that’s about as close as you want to get to a regional park burning down. If the winds that were present during the day were still high at the time of the fire, “there could have been a lot of dollars of damage.”

“When it’s dry like that, especially there is a condition called crossover that occurs,” he said. “It’s when the relative humidity in the air and the air temperature and wind-speed where they all cross over each other on the grass. [Then] every little bit of fuel, whether it’s grass or trees or whatever, is so dry that it’s like it’s gasoline. Anything will cause it to burn very easily.”

The Town of Cut Knife municipality notes that even with the recent rain on Monday evening, the fire ban is still in effect and must be respected.

Park authority administrator, Dana Klus, said that based on reports she received, a group campsite adjacent to where the fire occurred was not burning any campfire and were respecting the fire ban.

“Conditions existed obviously for a high risk of fire, which is why we had the fire ban on,” she said.

Klus noted the poplar tree fuzz is highly ignitable, and there is quite a bit of it in the park at this time of year.

She added the park has some fire equipment in addition to the local fire department putting out the fire, which helped.

“Some bystanders were around that responded to the fire until the [fire] department could get there,” Klus said. “Thank you to all the people who responded.”

She reminds people to continue to “be careful out there.”

“It’s pretty dry,” Klus said.

The park’s authority asks people to “please remain to be very mindful that, even despite the recent rain, conditions exist that are favourable to wildfire.”

—

Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow