Richmound rancher continues recovery in Calgary hospital

By Gillian Slade on October 31, 2017.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com  @MHNGillianSlade

A Richmound rancher seriously burned in the wildfire on Oct. 17 has had surgery and remains in a Calgary hospital, says his son.

“Last Sunday he had the grafting surgery done and he is now starting the basic rehab,” Kevin Riehl says of his father Eddie. “He had to be pretty still for the first days because they grafted onto his knees and onto his hands. They are happy the way he is progressing.”

Eddie, 74, was injured as a wall of fire swept through the Hilda area. As he tried to leave the area his truck slid into a ditch as the fire approached.

After moving his cattle to a different pasture that afternoon to keep them away from the wildfire, he had been waiting in his truck on a road in case the wind changed direction. He wanted to be ready to release the cattle if that became necessary.

Later that evening as smoke increased and visibility became increasingly poor, Eddie was joined by Jeremy Wagner in his truck and later James Hargrave, the rancher and volunteer firefighter from Walsh killed that night.

As they waited, the wind suddenly changed direction and took them by surprise, said Kevin. They decided to leave immediately and soon there was a “wall of flame 30- or 40-feet high,” said Kevin.

Two of the vehicles had to turn around in order to move away from the direction of the fire. At each side of the road there were deep ditches and zero visibility.

Eddie suffered third degree burns on this hands, elbows and minor burns to his face and knees. He is expected to be in the Calgary hospital for at least another two weeks, said Kevin.

Skin from the front of his legs was taken to graft onto the other burns. That too is now the source of pain, said Kevin.

Eddie lost his entire herd of 85 cattle, representing a financial loss of more than $100,000, said Kevin, who had the task of looking for and finding the badly burned cattle. Some needed to be put out of their misery and pain.

Politicians in Saskatchewan and the mayor from Fox Valley have been trying to help, said Kevin.

“Like everybody else we are waiting for direction on how we go about looking for compensation,” said Kevin. “He (his father) is in the same boat as the neighbours.”

Burned grazing land may have fresh grass emerging but it will not be able to sustain cattle grazing for about two years, said Kevin.

A plan to recover from the devastation and also to hopefully avoid a similar situation in future is foremost in the minds of those affected, he said.

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