No houses lost during three separate fires in Cypress County, state of emergency will not yet be lifted

By Mo Cranker on July 27, 2019.

A trio of fires that sparked Saturday have been contained by County firefighters, but a local state of emergency will not yet be lifted.

Firefighters from the county worked alongside firefighters from Brooks, Tilley, County of Newell, Rolling Hills, Saskatchewan, Hutterite Colonies, CFB Suffiled and local ranchers to fight three separate fires in Cypress County.

One fire was south of Walsh, while the second was between Irvine and Dunmore. The third fire was near Suffield.

“It’s been an all-hands-on-deck approach – a real community effort,” said director of emergency management Kim Dalton. “The first fire south of Walsh was a flareup from the Wednesday lightning storm and the other we’re thinking is a flare up from an incident near Suffield, from earlier in the week – we think it’s from the tractor that was split in two.
“The fire along the railway tracks north of the Trans-Canada between Irvine and Dunmore, we had to close down travel on the highway. We think it came from the railway track – CP took control of that site and is monitoring it.”

As far as damage, Dalton says no homes were lost Saturday, but a number of structures and farm properties were damaged by fires.

“There was a lot of farm land hit and a number of structures damaged, but no houses were lost,” he said. “We’ll know a lot more in the next day or two.”

Dalton says the County will continue to work with residents and firefighters before lifting the state of emergency.

“There’s a lot we still have to do – we’re going to keep people updated in every way we can.”

People can stay updated by checking the Cypress County website and Facebook page.

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