It was frantic for a while West of Morden, according to Morden Fire & Rescue (MFR) Chief Andy Thiessen, when describing a call the department received on Thursday.
"We had our second grass fire of the season, and it happened to be a fairly large one in just West of town. We managed to control the fire well enough to miss all the residential houses and the businesses that were there. It started from a garbage bin, sparks getting out. You’d think the rain that we had earlier on in the week would have made the ground saturated enough that it wouldn't burn, but it burned quite well.”
Surprised how fast the fire spread
Thiessen said the fire started at a local business in the back near Maverick Industries and Thiessen Acres.
"They have some spark resistors for their burn barrels. They just failed to put them over top thinking that all the ground was wet, that it wouldn't be an issue. They left their burn barrels, but it became an issue quite quickly. I was actually surprised myself how fast it was actually cutting across the field. My estimate there is probably quarter to maybe a third of a section that burned yesterday.”
Why did it spread so fast?
It wasn’t a field with stubble or with a crop planted this year, Thiessen described what happened.
"It was actually pastureland that hasn't been pastured for a number of years, so there's years and years of deadfall in there. I guess it was just dry enough and the wind was right, and it just took off. We scrambled and tried to protect...There was a number of homes on that side of the highway on the north side that we managed to steer the fire around. Thank goodness for Road 30 that stopped the fire from getting to Falcon Dr.”
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An unexpected challenge led to a creative defence
When asked if the tanker was able to help in this kind of fire, Thiessen said no.
"That wasn't the problem. The issue was rocks. There are a lot of rocks out there, so we couldn't go out with our smaller truck or anything like that. Everything was done with a quad and our grass fighting unit on the back. We contacted Darlingford Fire (Dept) to come out with their grass unit as well and thank goodness they came. It made a big difference with those fellows giving us a hand.”
"It felt like a mini L.A. for a bit"
It took a couple hours to get the fire under control.
“It was frantic there for a while because we saw these residential homes that were right in our path. That was our biggest concern at the time. There were no structures lost, no damage to anything, just burned out the pasture that was there. And so, we were fortunate.”
A word of caution
Going into the next seasons, Thiessen cautioned anyone planning on a burn. Let MFR know it is happening. It doesn’t cost anything to get a burn permit, and it is helpful for the department to know where the fires are so they can be ready to help, if needed.