ATHABASCA - Mother Nature often has other plans, as local firefighters found out May 3 when they responded to a call for smoke investigation near Jackfish Lake, roughly 10 kilometres north of Athabasca.
“We get a lot of those calls, where the callers call into 911 and don’t have a lot of information,” said regional fire chief Travis Shalapay.
The fire would end up taking two months to fully extinguish, and it would require local firefighters, Athabasca County public works officers, Agriculture and Forestry crews, and everyday farmers to get the blaze under control. In the five days it took to get the fire held, it burned over 2,400 hectares of farm and Crown land, and one forest cabin.
At the time of the fire, Shalapay was the volunteer chief for the Town of Athabasca’s fire department, and he oversaw the response for portions of the initial five days. With the department already gearing up for what may be a busy 2024 season, Shalapay took some time to reflect on what he learned from the experience.
“As we located the fire, the magnitude of the event was quickly noted … Right away, we could tell that this was ‘beyond resources,’ or something that we couldn’t get a handle on quick,” said Shalapay.
The first issue the firefighters had to figure out was location. The fire was burning against Jackfish Lake, and crews had to traverse through swampy conditions to fight it.
“I will personally tell you that trying to take side-by-sides down some of those cutlines was a futile mistake,” said Shalapay. “The fire had run through, but the ground was still soft. There were a lot of spots where there was still standing water. Needless to say, if a side-by-side couldn’t make it, a firetruck wasn’t going to.”
The location meant the crews needed heavy equipment support to stop the fire from spreading. Two helicopters had been sent by Agriculture and Forestry to help, but aid from Athabasca County’s public works department was needed as well. The municipal firefighters were released on the evening of May 4 to help prevent burnout and get them back into service for other fires in the region.
“Throughout the day Thursday, the fire continued to push against the lake, and it wasn’t getting any bigger,” said Shalapay. “During the day, we had another fire spark up that was of more concern, so some of our resources were pulled from Jackfish Lake. Our regional fire chief of the day left, and we picked away at it all day.”
The firefighters were set to transition over control of the scene to the public works manager at 9 p.m. May 4, but around 6 p.m. they discovered the fire had worked its way around the lake.
“Helicopters have limited flying time, so what had happened was the two helicopters that were bucketing water at the north end of the lake (ran out of time) and they left,” said Shalapay. “It was able to creep around the lake and make its way to Camping Lake. That was the moment when we realized we needed to change our strategy.”
Once the fire made its way to Camping Lake, crews focused on keeping it from jumping the lake and burning towards private property. At that point, the fire had still been burning on Crown land.
“Things seemed to be at bay again — the fire had hit the lake, didn’t seem to be rapidly growing, we had bulldozers making guards on the north side. I’m not going to say we were confident, but we had an okay feeling we would be able to hold it for the night.,” said Shalapay.
Two hours after the department had changed its tactics, a local farmer came “shooting out of nowhere,” into the command post, saying the fire had jumped the lake. Shalapay initially thought the man was referring to the shift towards Camping Lake, but during a conversation it became clear that the fire had already jumped over Camping Lake.
“Little twigs, sparks, pinecones, anything that can float made their way to the other side of the lake. It’s not a very big lake,” said Shalapay. “At 9:41 p.m., the panic button was pressed again, and we called municipal fire services out.”
According to Shalapay, the feeling that they had held the fire for the night was based on standard fire behaviors — the typical burning period starts at roughly 9 a.m., peaks at noon, and tends to die off around 5 p.m. as the humidity drops.
“Having the fire jump the lake at 9 p.m. was something that was unexpected, and something we didn’t foresee,” said the chief. “During the day of the escape, from May 4 to 3 a.m. May 5, we had (peak fire conditions) that were unheard of throughout the night.”
At that point, while fire departments from Colinton and Boyle and Athabasca were brought back in to fight the fire, an evacuation order was issued around 11:30 p.m. May 4.
“We weren’t certain we were going to be able to hold the fire. There was too good of conditions, we were fighting fires in the dark which isn’t typical,” said Shalapay. “It’s a lot harder at night. People might think you can see the orange flame, but when the smoke is thick around the ground, you go from complete blackness to this orange glow 360 degrees around you. It really is a terrifying feeling.”
Thanks to the help of “gracious farmers,” and farming equipment, the fire was held, although it came at the expense of farmland.
“Over the course of the night, farmers came up to help — they disked, they tilled, the municipal guys were in there suppressing fires and we were able to hold the line,” said Shalapay. “At that point it was estimated at 2,400 hectares. From five in the evening to five in the morning, we went from 400 hectares to 2,400. That’s an overnight run that really isn’t typical.”
Volunteer workload became a concern by that point; Shalapay said many of the firefighters had been up for 24 hours, and the department was focusing on getting people back onto a normal routine.
“There are two challenges with volunteers; yes, they’re a finite resource, but they really want to serve and they really want to be there. We had an overwhelming response from across the county service of people volunteering to come out,” said Shalapay.
Shalapay said that Agriculture and Forestry had been a big help as well. The fire spread into the Forest Management Area (FMA), and while it was still Athabasca County’s responsibility, the provincial department brought helicopters and skimmer planes to help out.
“From there it was a race against the clock; it was being held, but we had to secure the sides of the fire. If we had experienced a wind shift, the fire would have been able to take off and run,” said Shalapay.
After securing the fire, efforts continued at the site well into July. Due to the nature of the peat and muskeg, concerns about underground fires kept crews out looking for ash pits or other burn sites.
“Even this winter, once we get some snow, we’ll get out there and fly the drone and look for areas where the snow is melting. There still is the potential for groundfires,” said Shalapay. “Until we can verify that the fire is out, it will still be a point of concern.”
