By Glenn Hicks

Time and rain needed to ease danger: PAFD

May 8, 2018 | 5:13 PM

As Prince Albert Fire Department crews spent Tuesday mopping up after a very busy Monday, they said the grasslands in town need some time and a proper rainfall to ease the extreme fire danger.

Battalion Chief Alex Paul was speaking after firefighters endured what he confirmed was their most hectic day of an already very busy spring attending to grass fires, at least two of which were not accidental.

Paul says a shower or two won’t be good enough to change the very flammable conditions.

“We need things to green up and that will be a big assistance for us,” he told paNOW. “That, and a good three or four day rain that gives us a good soaking.”

Paul said crews were stretched Monday afternoon while they were conducting a controlled burn on the 600 block of 15th Avenue East. They then got a call of a grassfire in a remote part of the golf course near the community garden that spread quickly in the hot, dry and windy conditions. Paul figured it was suspicious.

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“We don’t have witnesses but the fire started in an inaccessible piece of bushy area where no one drives and where no one would walk,” he said.

He said once they extinguished their controlled burn the challenge to dealing with the blaze on the golf course was access issues for their apparatus because of soft ground. He said they couldn’t risk getting stuck so they didn’t get to the fire as quickly as they would have liked.

While crews were tackling that situation another call came in of a fire near the Alfred Jenkins Field House, also suspicious.

Paul said extra crews were called in to bolster the on-shift battalion because had there been any further major emergencies there had to be cover.

Paul said while the public can still have their fires in Kinsmen Park and their approved fire pits in their backyards, it’s the grasslands with long, dead grass that remain the major issue.

He said the fire bans currently in place north of the river and around the region should be respected.

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow