‘It’s just unheard of’: Fire captain reacts to dry conditions

Fire crews in the province have been busier than ever this spring.

Darren Kraft is the fire captain of the Asquith fire department, located about 40 km west of Saskatoon.

He says the bone-dry conditions have created lots of challenges.

“Probably over the last five years, it has just gotten worse and worse every single year,” he said. “We have responded to around 15 to 20 grassfires since the end of March.

“Before that, if we had five at this point, that was a lot.”

According to Kraft, responding to grass fires in March was considered a rare occurrence — something that changed drastically this year.

“It’s just unheard of, we don’t go to grass fires in March,” Kraft said. “Typically they don’t start towards the middle of April, even closer to May.

“We had never saw them start in March like that before.”

Warm temperatures, low humidity and gusty winds will increase grass fire danger over southern #Saskatchewan today.

Use caution when discarding matches or cigarettes. #skstorm

See active fire bans here: https://t.co/qzp3naRsu3

— ECCC Weather Saskatchewan (@ECCCWeatherSK) April 30, 2021

A Saskatoon couple nearly lost their acreage on Monday afternoon after a blaze got within 75 feet of their home just north of the city.

Firefighters also battled a fire northeast of the city on April 21 in which thick pillows of smoke could be seen miles away.

Kraft says as long as there is a lack of rain, people need to be very cautious.

“A couple almost lost their house because garbage was burning,” he said. “Cigarette butts out the window, as silly as that sounds, there’s a lot of fires that have started that way along the highway and back roads.

“And if everyone complies with the fire ban, it saves everybody.”