OLDS – The risk of a grass or bush fire that could destroy homes in Olds is relatively low, but not zero, the Olds Fire Department chief and protective services director says.
During the Town of Olds' May 12 council meeting, Coun. Darren Wilson asked Justin Andrew what that risk is.
Wilson said he was spurred to ask that question by the fact that when he and fellow Coun. Wanda Blatz were “sprinting” through an urban forest recently, he noticed a lot of deadfall as well as “tinder dry conditions.”
“(I’m) just wondering if the director could comment on what our risk assessment is. What do we do to prepare for in an event in that case,” Wilson asked.
“Is there anything council should be looking at maybe around an appropriation within future budgets to assist with cleaning up certain areas, because I know there are pockets throughout the town.”
Wilson also noted that along 57th Avenue, just at the southern end of town, there’s a wooded and grassland area “with not much of a buffer” between that area and housing.
Andrew said the fire risk “is very low” for a urban interface fire, which is one that would start in a wooded or grassy area and move into town.
“Because we're primarily surrounded by grass and or agricultural fields, the fire risk is pretty low,” Andrew said.
“Even though a fire in a field or in grass can be serious, it doesn't typically have the fuel load behind it to carry enough potential where it's going to light a lot of structures on fire.”
Andrew said another factor that lowers the fire risk in Olds is the existence of the Olds Fire Department (OFD) itself.
He said due to the OFD’s “quick response times and access to municipal water supply, it would have to be one heck of a fire for it to get away from us, where you'd have structures threatened to the point where you would get into a community that couldn't be managed.”
Andrew said fire officials have been in the tree reserve Wilson referred to.
He confirmed there is some deadfall in there and added that the OFD is working with the town’s parks department on a “mitigation strategy” to clear out at least some of it.
“We've been in there several times this spring already looking at it, and the type of trees there lends that area to be relatively low-risk,” Andrew said.
“Because of them being leaf-bearing trees, they don't burn as readily.
“If there was a fire there, it wouldn't get up into the canopy like it would be in a deciduous forest, such as pine or spruce trees, so the risk of the fire spreading to houses is relatively minimal,” he added.
Anderson said the OFD had planned to undertake some controlled burns in the wooded area earlier this spring, but poor weather, including high winds, forced them to cancel those plans.
“It's very risky business conducting back burn exercises to reduce that risk, and we don't want to take the risk that now we burn somebody's house down when we're trying to mitigate the risk,” Andrew said.
“I'm sure that residents wouldn't appreciate that we go in there and light a fire and all of your windows are open and now your house is full of smoke either.
“So it's a delicate game, and we do aim to deal with it, for sure.”
It's still possible the deadfall will be removed and a controlled burn conducted in the area this fall, he said.
