A grass fire in the King Hill area burned over about 10 acres on a windy afternoon Monday.
North Battleford Fire Department dispatched a full range of resources to battle the blaze at about 3 p.m. The deployment included a dozen firefighters, a pumper, two brush fire trucks and a tanker. It took significant time bring the fire under control and firefighters remained on the scene for two and half hours monitoring for flare-ups.
This latest callout to a grass fire has promoted NBFD to ban open air burning.
According to a City press release, various grassfires have burned in the Battlefords region over the past week, prompting NBFD to prohibit open air burning in the City and within the RM of North Battleford.
"That means controlled burning and any kind of burning outside of an approved fire pit is prohibited until further notice," said NBFD Chief Albert Headrick.
In conditions such as these, Headrick encourages urban and rural residents to make their properties as fire safe as possible.
"Keep dry vegetation and combustibles away from buildings, be cautious with discarded smoking materials and please report suspicious activity or suspected fire starters to the RCMP," said Headrick.
Headrick approves of the use of legal fire pits as long as extreme caution is exercised:
He urges close supervision of the fire, having an adequate supply of water available to extinguish or control the fire, proper extinguishing of fire after use and paying attention to wind conditions and potential spark hazards.
