Controlled burns are underway in Prince Albert in the hopes of preventing dead grass from igniting at the wrong time. (Submitted photo/Aimee McKay)

By Rob Mahon

Controlled Burns Begin

Fire department battles 10-acre weekend blaze, begins controlled burn season

Apr 25, 2023 | 12:00 PM

Dry, dead grass and other plants can be fuel for fires this time of year, so fire departments around the province are trying to clear away that fuel before it can lead to something really dangerous.

The Prince Albert Fire Department has started their controlled burns for the season. There won’t be any controlled burning done today with the rainy weather, but the burns have already begun, starting with the railway along Carlton Trail.

“We’re going to be burning, eventually, Sixth Avenue West all the way to 20^th Avenue West on both sides of the rail bed,” said deputy fire chief Alex Paul. “It gets rid of those tall weeds and grass and things that can light up throughout the season.”

If it seems a little strange that the fire department would actually be starting fires, there’s a good reason why they do these prescribed burns. Getting rid of dead or diseased vegetation now, while they can control the spread of the fire, means they don’t have to worry about an out-of-control fire later on.

“Those areas tend to get lit up more frequently than other areas,” Paul said. “So yesterday we did manage to burn between 12^th Avenue and 14^th Avenue, we got a two-block stretch of the railway track done on both sides.”

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Progress for the department is somewhat weather dependent but the early expectation, according to Paul, is that the burns will be wrapped up within the next two weeks.

“What we don’t manage to burn in the next two weeks we probably won’t be able to burn once the grass starts to green up,” Paul said. “Once the grass comes up and is green, it makes it very difficult for the old grass to burn.”

The fire department got a vivid example over the weekend of what can happen when a fire starts without any kind of control. A grass fire on Sunday covered about 10 acres on Elevator Road, just south of Prince Albert’s city limits.

“We were on scene somewhere between eight and 10 hours controlling it,” Paul said. “There was no property damage to speak of, it was contained to fields. Access in the muddy conditions to get to all the areas to put out the hotspots took time and took manpower.”

Paul added a controlled burn can be a good way to keep pest populations down (including those of ticks), and to eliminate invasive plant species. He said one of those plant species is present in some of the drainage ditches in the city, and the Parks and Recreation department uses the fire as a means of controlling its presence.

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP