Helicopters aid in second brush vegetation fire

Dry conditions during harvest are a necessity, but can also be dangerous, as the Drumheller Fire Department responded to a second major vegetation fire in just over a week. On Wednesday afternoon, August 26, shortly before 5 p.m., the Drumheller Fire Department responded to a vegetation fire near Monarch Hill, about two miles north of the fire the previous week. They called on mutual aid from the Carbon Fire Department to help with the blaze. Fire Chief Derian Rosario explained the fire dropped down into a coulee, making the fire harder to battle. 'It was just too dangerous to send guys down there, so I called Kneehill County and asked for a couple of helicopters, and they said okay,' explains Rosario. He explained that Alberta Forestry has helicopters at the ready. While the Town of Drumheller does not have an aid agreement with Alberta Forestry, Kneehill County does. A light and a medium helicopter were deployed, and they did 25 water drops, filling from a pond at the top of Monarch Hill. 'When you start getting 75 gallons of water right on top of where you need it, it works very quickly, " he said. 'The fire covered about 50 acres when all was said and done. They ( the landowner) didn't lose much crop, but it burned some stubble and a little pasture area,' he said. The Fire Department was deployed the following afternoon to a flare-up at the site. They dealt with it and monitored it for more hot spots. The fire is under investigation, but Rosario says it was another combine fire. 'It was possibly a rock strike because the combine that started it, had no damage whatsoever,' he said.