Despite a weather forecast that is cooling things down, Sturgeon County is playing it safe and keeping a fire ban in place.
Deputy fire chief Pat Mahoney said moisture levels in the county are moving in the right direction, but to be safe the county still wants the ban.
“We are just going to monitor it for the next day or two and see what effect it has had.”
He said the fire ban the county has had in place has made the job for Sturgeon firefighters a lot easier with fewer brush fires than they would have expected if there had been no ban.
With snow falling all over the Capital region Tuesday, Mahoney said the county should be in a better spot later this week but noted the rain that fell last week wasn’t much help.
“Even the precipitation we had last week didn’t make a huge difference because as quick as the precipitation was falling, the wind was drying it out.”
Mahoney said he expects the snow to help, but the county wants to be sure the risk is gone before they remove the ban.
“Certainly yesterday’s and today’s precipitation will help and that is why we want to make sure we make the right decision.”
Sturgeon is one of the last municipalities in the region to hold onto its fire ban. St. Albert lifted its fire ban last Friday. Chief Ray Richards said the rain the city received last week was enough to reduce the risk in the city.
“Things were starting to green up with the moisture and the forecast was right on for what we have out there now, so conditions had changed quite a bit.”
Richards said the city doesn’t have the same concerns about massive wildfires that the county has, but there are some trouble spots. When they imposed the ban, they were playing it safe.
“It was so dry and we just couldn’t take the chance.”
The city had a handful of very small grassfires while the ban was on and Richards said in that sense it was likely worth it.
“These wildfires can get out of hand so quickly, the fact that we didn’t have any was positive.”
Under Sturgeon’s fire ban only gas-fuelled barbecues are permitted.
