Fire burns on base near Jenner

By Medicine Hat News on October 25, 2017.

One week after damaging prairie fires, Cypress County fire officials say they are en route to another grassfire located on the CFB Suffield range.

Deputy fire chief John McBain told the News that county equipment and men were being dispatched to the scene to assist Department of National Defence fire crews.

McBain said the blaze was entirely inside the military base — in the northwest corner, east of Jenner, and heading generally southeast.

Reports of smoke in Medicine Hat were made at about 4 p.m. when winds gusted to 75 km/h.

Much of southeast and eastern Alberta is under a wind warning on Wednesday. Environment Canada did not predict a top wind speed, though a forecast states wind should diminish in the evening, when light snow was expected.

The fire comes one week after a major fire in the Hilda area was fanned by extremely high winds.

Eventually it pushed well into Saskatchewan before it was extinguished the next day.

Earlier in October, a major fire on the base spread north into Special Areas 2 and burned fields and pasture to the Red Deer River.