INNISFAIL - Firefighters from Innisfail and across the region were called to battle a big, intense rural pig barn fire that forced commanders to bring in a rehab unit to provide relief to struggling crews.
Local firefighters received their first call at 2:40 p.m. on June 12 to head west of Innisfail on Rge. Rd. 23 where a pig barn had caught on fire, with billowing smoke that could be seen from Highway 2.
Gary Leith, chief of the Innisfail Fire Department, said when crews arrived at the scene they discovered that 70 per cent of the 100-metre by 60-metre single-storey structure was fully involved. He said it was later determined the cause of the blaze was a lawn tractor that had caught on fire and spread to the barn.
He said firefighting crews from Bowden and Spruce View, along with those from Innisfail, established fire breaks to prevent the fire from spreading.
Leith said conditions were challenging with 28 C temperatures and heavy smoke. He added that a rehab unit from Red Deer County was called in to treat firefighters suffering from the intense heat.
"The rehab unit came out to provide food and water and shelter for them (firefighters) to cool down as it was so hot," he said, adding there was 18 firefighters from the three jurisdictions involved in the firefighting operation.
Leith said it took about two hours to bring the blaze under control, with crews continuing to extinguish the fire for an additional four hours. He said there were no pigs in the barn at the time of the fire and that one firefighter was treated at the scene for a minor laceration to her arm.
Leith said the estimated damage caused by the rural blaze is about $200,000.
