A fire broke out Monday night and blazed across a huge swath of the Alexander First Nation as dry, hot conditions continue to place the entire Capital region at an elevated risk of fire.
The blaze broke out around 6 p.m. on Monday night. Sturgeon County crews responded as the fire looked poised to burn across the boundary into the county.
Sturgeon's deputy fire Chief Pat Mahoney said it appeared as though the fire was going to spread into the county and crews wanted to be ready.
"We were there to make sure that if it were to come back toward the county that we would be there."
The county does not provide mutual aid assistance to the Alexander First Nation as it does with several other municipalities. The county cut off fire services to the reserve in 2007 after more than $37,000 in bills for services went unpaid.
At the time the county was fighting all of the fires on the reserve, but Alexander has since created its own department, which deals with most of the problems on the reserve.
Mahoney said when county firefighters arrived on scene, they learned Alexander crews were dealing with the fire.
"From speaking with the band chief we learned they had a fire truck, a couple of water tankers as well as a dozer, one grader and about 150 residents with some half tons and water tanks in the back."
He said county crews might have initially been able to fight the blaze, but when they arrived it had moved into an area their equipment would have been hard pressed to reach.
"It was fairly rugged terrain and something that our equipment just isn't designed to do."
Mahoney said he made it clear if the fire did start threatening homes the county crews were ready to help, but that didn't arise.
"I did make the offer, agreement or no agreement, that should house or buildings come into threat we would be able to help, but that never came into being."
The fire was contained around 8 p.m., after spreading across roughly three quarter-sections of land.
Extreme risk
The county remains under a fire ban because of the risk that comes from such dry conditions.
Mahoney described it as extreme and said the Alexander blaze is the largest one so far in the area, but they have had to deal with 20 or 30 smaller ones.
"It is getting worse day by day with the temperatures and the wind."
He said some of those fires have been deliberately set while others have been caused by people burning without a permit.
He said the extreme threat means the department is taking each incident very seriously.
"They certainly have the potential, but it is our policy to dispatch two crews to these things to get to it while it is small and before it gets out of hand."
Fire bans also remain in place in St. Albert, Strathcona County, Parkland County and Leduc. The bans restrict any open fires other than gas-fuelled barbecues.
