The Estevan Fire Rescue Service (EFRS) members dealt with the first wildland fire of 2021 on Wednesday.
The call came in at about 1:30 p.m. The fire occurred southwest of the city in the RM of Estevan. The fire started on an acreage and spread into the Water Security Agency wetlands.
"That led to some accessibility issues there for some of our equipment. However, we were able to deploy our Kubota ATV to get in there and start initial suppression operations as well as one one-tonne truck to go in and knockdown (the fire)," Estevan Fire Chief Dale Feser.
With changing wind, firefighters had to adjust their suppression efforts accordingly several times. It took a considerable amount of time, but they were able to bring the fire under control and then fully extinguish it.
"There was a lot of manpower labour required as a lot of the firefighters had to walk in and use old school suppression tactics with brooms, coupled with water for extinguishment efforts," Feser said.
Crews were working on the scene for about two hours. Nobody was injured as a result of the incident.
It turned out that the homeowners were burning a pile of leaves when the wind changed direction and blew sparks over to some old dry vegetation.
"Even though the day previous we had what looked to be a fairly significant amount of moisture that fell in the area, the vegetation is still pretty dry out there and the ground is frozen," Feser said.
With no snow cover left and generally dry conditions, the wildland fire season now can be considered open. So if burning anything, people are asked to always assess the wind conditions and exercise extreme caution.
