A farmer burning garbage in a burn barrel near his barn March 22 stepped away for a few moments to fuel his tractor and returned to find the burn out of control and the barn on fire, according to Rocky View County Fire Services (RVCFS) District Fire Chief Gary Barnett.
“It came through initially as a grassfire, but that it was spreading towards a barn,” he said. “A small barn, 28 by 36 feet, was actually fully involved in fire by the time we got there, and then there were two or three acres burning. There was quite a lot of scrap material – vehicles and (water or fuel) tanks and other material – burning.
“With the dry season, there were grassfires running away from the barn, sort of heading west. It included long grass, shrubs, trees, bushes. It looks like the farmer was having a burn in a burn barrel and it got away from him.”
Crews initially received the call to respond to the location north west of Cochrane and west of Highway 22 at approximately 3:30 p.m.
Firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading to the residence on the property.
“We sent crews from RVC, Madden, Crossfield, Balzac, Cochrane – and we did a callback and brought in some extra crews in as well,” Barnett said.
A total of 29 firefighters and 14 fire apparatus including fire engines, water tenders and bush buggies attended the fire.
“They wrapped up around 9:30 p.m.,” Barnett said. “It was six hours on the call. We had a call in Church Ranches at the same time. Luckily, that was confined to a waste dumpster on a renovation site.”
Although RVC is currently under a fire advisory, burning in a burn barrel is allowed, according to Barnett.
“You can burn in a recognized barrel,” he said. “The advisory stops open burning, like a bonfire. Burning in a barrel, if it’s a proper barrel with the bars on the top, is allowed. It is supposed to be at least three metres away from combustibles. He’s not caused damage to anyone else’s property so we wouldn’t fine him for that.”
There were no injuries to people or livestock.
