Fire scorches land south of Sarto

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This article was published 14/04/2015 (3292 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Fire officials struggled to handle a brush fire south of Sarto on Wednesday that wreaked havoc on two sections of land, destroyed an abandoned barn and came within a few feet of setting a hog operation ablaze.

Gusts approaching 90 km/h scorched the earth, leading fire departments in Grunthal, Kleefeld and New Bothwell to lose control of the fast-moving blaze by Wednesday afternoon, which torched the dry grass but left most trees standing. The fire was being well-contained late that afternoon and firefighters left the scene shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday.

Fire personnel began keeping watch over the brush fire south of Road 24N around 11 p.m. Tuesday night, three miles south of Sarto.

Twice they thought they knocked the fire down, at 3:30 a.m. and close to noon Wednesday. Each time, a patrol urged them to return as small blazes flared up.

The three departments were helping Steinbach’s fire department with a large blaze south of Mitchell when they were called back that second time.

Add the strong winds and the blaze jumped north of Road 24N and was soon out of hand.

“The wind was feeding it, and there’s a lot of fuel,” said Grunthal fire chief Paul Wiebe.

He believes someone intentionally set fire to some windrows, which violated the RM of Hanover’s open fire burning ban that came into effect Tuesday.

Firefighters worked desperately Wednesday afternoon to maintain the blaze within the two sections, towards the north on Road 26N and roads 30E and 31E to the west and east, respectively. The fire could not be contained where Road 25N should be because it does not extend from end to end.

An abandoned hog barn did catch fire that officials deemed not worth saving. A small nearby barn and a railroad caboose, both deserted, were also lost, explained Cam Barkman, a neighbor on the other side of Road 30E who watched as the winds drove the fire north Wednesday afternoon and closer to his abode.

Barkman yanked his garden hose and watered his ditch so it would act as a buffer.

“We were definitely worried it was going to jump the road,” he said.

Another grateful resident was Ernest Toews, a hog farmer south of Road 26N, who was in Winnipeg when he heard a brush fire was approaching. By the time he got home before 4 p.m., the fire was already extinguished but it came very close to causing destruction.

The fire was no less than three feet away from his barn’s westerly walls.

Toews heard from a neighbour that two firefighters saved his property.

“I’m thankful to the firefighters,” he said. “They dropped their jobs to save my farm while I’m in Winnipeg, essentially.”

Wiebe said the RM of Hanover’s three fire departments deployed all its resources toward this fire, which includes about 45 members.