By Brandon Graziano

Fighting fire with fire: controlled burning in Little Red nearly complete

May 2, 2018 | 2:00 PM

The second half of a controlled burn wraps up Wednesday in Little Red River Park.

Firefighters from the Prince Albert and Buckland fire departments and Saskatchewan Wildfire officials burned away dry vegetation in portions of the park, including two full hectares Tuesday, in their efforts to prevent wildfires before they occur.

Captain Randy Hurd, with Prince Albert Fire Department, said a fire could spread very quickly if a wildfire broke out in Little Red.

“This area is very heavily vegetated,” he said. “There’s probably about five to seven years of growth that’s just laid over. It’s becoming quite a big hazard for the users of the park and for those residents that live in and around the area.”

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The controlled burns have helped city and area fire departments in the past, according to Hurd.

“The fire load is again heavy this year. There’s a lot of areas around the city in need. We’re trying to do prescribed burns every year to mitigate our responses. Last year it was very successful in our small bases. We probably took our calls down by about 50 per cent.”

Hurd said some of the recent grassfires in the city and area were manmade, but they’ve been able to put them out quickly.

According to the Saskatchewan Wildfire Danger map, Prince Albert and much of the surrounding area is currently considered a high risk for wildfires.

brandon.graziano@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @brandongraziano