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Your LOCAL Media since 1918! Volume 105 Issue 9
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Wednesday, October 26, 2022 s
Fire contained at Ministik Bird Sanctuary Jana Semeniuk Staff Reporter
A fire that has so far grown to at least 40 hectares at the Ministik Bird Sanctuary, south west of Tofield, continues to burn since it began Oct. 17. Beaver Emergency Services District Station 1 Fire Chief, Kevin Moos, said efforts to contain the fire were initially hindered by a lack of usable trails. “The initial call came in at 16:17 hours that there was smoke and fire in Ministik Bird Sanctuary. So, station one from BESC (Beaver Emergency Services Commission) responded,” he said. “That part of the bird sanctuary has basically no usable trails of any kind. So, (for) that initial response, we had a contractor come out with a mulching skid steer and he mulched us a bit of a trail and a fire guard around the trail.” Ministik Lake Game Bird Sanctuary, over 7,300 hectares, was Alberta’s first provincial bird sanctuary designated in 1911, according to Beaver County’s website. Meanwhile, Moos said that Strathcona fire crews also responded, and the teams worked to contain the fire until midnight when operations had to be shut down for safety reasons. He said he could not speculate on what may have caused the fire and that a wildfire investigator has been sent to the scene. Moos added that the fire is slow progressing with flames burning low possibly due to the cool humid weather. “We sent crews in there the next day, and it was basically where we left it. It was just burning grass and leaves and wasn’t even burning trees,” he said. “That is a piece of crown land as well, so we reached out to government agencies, and they were good enough to send someone to help us that day.” Moos added that Strathcona Fire Department sent out a drone so they could get a better scope of the fire. As well, a fire crew was helicoptered in from Rocky Mountain House to start fire attack and assessment. He said that two days later weather conditions changed to ramp up the fire. “High winds came early in the morning (Oct. 20) so we had a pretty big flare up that day,” said Moos. He added that
the fire could be seen from township road 510 which prompted many 911 calls. “They’d reported that they were in danger of a structure fire, but it was just a flare up in the bush. There was never any structures threatened at all,” he said. Moos added that because of that call, a welfare crew had a helicopter come and bucket water on the fire to help contain it. “They actually added another crew at that point. So there’s in excess of 20 wildfire firefighters out there,” he said. Moos said that although the fire is now fully contained, it will not be completely out until the snow falls. “It's contained, we are going to leave some of the stuff in the middle of the trees to burn out. With the weather, the hazards (are) quite low to leave it,” he said. “When spring comes around, we are going to keep an eye on it for sure.”
Entry to the bird sanctuary was cut off until the fire was under control.
Drone photo of the Ministik Bird Sanctuary fire.