It was a Victoria Day long weekend to forget with three-straight-days of rain, but the precipitation has helped improve local fire conditions.
Although the moisture allowed Westlock County to downgrade its fire ban status to a fire restriction, fire chief John Biro says conditions remain dry.
“Especially in the forested areas with the canopies, a lot of that moisture didn’t penetrate into the ground,” Biro said.
“There’s still potential out there. Thursday, we had a warm, breezy day and all the water that was sitting is gone and the fine fuels are dry again in certain areas. There are a few spots in our county that are a potential for risk of fire if people aren’t using caution.”
With the new restriction now in place, the county has started to issue select permits for open burning.
“We’re still holding off on the larger brush wind rows, anything that’s going to burn more than three days, because in three days, things can change fairly quickly,” Biro said. “A lot of crops are starting to come up already and the ditches are turning green, but there are still a lot of areas within our county with tall, dead grass.”
Backcountry fires, however, are still banned, while backyard fires and campfires are allowed within approved pits. A ban on off-highway vehicles has been rescinded.
“If we get one or two days of no rain and no moisture and the heat as well as the winds, the fine fuels are going to be dry again and we could get surface fires easily,” he said.
“We’re not out of the woods yet.”
Biro said it’s normally in June when the grass begins to green and alleviates the high fire risk.
“It’s going to depend on this year … we are dry, this moisture here didn’t help much except for surface moisture, but it’s going to dry again if we don’t continue with the moisture,” he said.
“Any electrical storms that come through could pose a hazard for starting ground fires. If we have any electrical storms going through and we have any ground hits, there’s definitely for fire to pop up later.”
