- BY JENNIFER ARGUE, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
October 18th, 2022
“It raced so fast!! Was absolutely terrifying. If they hadn’t got it stopped there was one farmyard that’s was in the direct path,” wrote Rhonda Cameron, an area farmer describing the harvest stubble fire that whipped up on Wednesday, October 12, 3 km north of their farm northeast of the community of Silton.
The Camerons were combining in the area when she said they saw a puff of smoke, and then the sky was filled with smoke. They got their water truck and half-ton and headed over to help.
The Silton Fire Department reported on their Facebook page, “With wind gusts in excess of 80 km/hr, the fire was spreading quickly to neighbouring fields and extended over several miles prior to crews arriving.”
When fire breaks out, area farmers jump into action, and by the time she got there, there were already farmers discing the area. “The farming community helps out. If we see smoke, we get over with implements and water tanks.”
By Thursday, the gusting wind was still causing many flare-ups, and the Silton Fire Department remained on the scene extinguishing and monitoring the fire.
By Friday, Captain Corrie Coons of the Silton Fire Department said there was still smouldering in the bush, but they weren’t as concerned about it because the winds had died down.
These types of fires aren’t typical, but Coons said the wind caused the fire to jump from bush to bush quickly.
Harvest sees a higher risk of fires with machinery and people burning piles of stubble. “Especially this year, it’s really dry right now, and the humidity is really low. We haven’t had any moisture in a while so anything is going to burn pretty quickly. And when you add in factors like the wind, it just fuels it even more and makes it a bit greater magnitude of a fire.”
“We just encourage people to be very mindful of what the weather is like and what the conditions are like prior to burning anything.”
“We had a lot of help from all the farmers on this one. They had their machinery in the fields even before we got there, cultivating and harrowing and creating fire breaks as much as they could. We just worked in coordination with them to help stop the fire from hopping those fire breaks, which was happening. So when we got there, we were able to extinguish a bunch of the flames with their help. It was a big community effort on this one, for sure.
“The Silton Fire Department would like to thank all those with equipment in the fields, the Lumsden Fire Department, Rob’s Contracting, Aquarius, North Shore Water/Septic, SPSA and members of the community for all their help and hard work in fighting this fire.”
The Fire Department is still investigating the cause.
