Dry spring conditions have kept Dauphin firefighters busy in recent weeks and, given the potential for serious harm, department officials are urging area residents to follow the rules around lighting fires and to use common sense before striking the match.
After a busy stretch the week before, during a time span between May 3 and 5, Dauphin Fire Department responded to six incidents, which included four calls for wild land blazes.
The first came in the afternoon of May 3 when DFD was dispatched to a grass fire northeast of Dauphin after hydro lines came into contact with tree branches and showered sparks into the tinder dry grass below.
Just as firefighters were wrapping up that call, a mutual aid request came in from Sifton Fire Department at a yard and barn fire north of Dauphin. The two departments were working in high winds to control the fire, which was attributed to embers from a burning barrel when yet another call was received around 5 p.m. regarding a grass fire west of Dauphin off Hwy. 274.
Given everything that was going on, a mutual aid request was sent to the Gilbert Plains Fire Department, which responded with a full slate of manpower and equipment. The two departments working together limited damages from the fire, attributed to a controlled burn that outgrew the property owner’s ability to extinguish it.
That was not it for the weekend, however, as, after a call to assist paramedics in the city, fighters received another rural call for a blaze near Stony Point just after midnight.
Upon arrival, firefighters found a hay field on fire covering an area one mile wide east to west and two miles wide north to south.
As the fire was located in a marshy area, and firefighting equipment was unable to access the area, firefighters remained on scene all night to ensure there was no threat to any structures.
It has been a difficult and stressful stretch for firefighters, that could have been much less difficult and stressful if a little more common sense had been exercised by some of those involved.
Read the full story in this week’s edition of the Dauphin Herald.
