Crews from Rocky View, Cochrane, Bearspaw, Balzac and Madden Fire Services attended a blaze just on the outskirts of town last evening (April 19).

Fire Chief Randy Smith shares the call came in around 7:45 pm when a homeowner had gone out to their quonset barn and noticed significant flames coming out of the entry/exit door. "Crews got on scene and found an 80 by 120 quonset workshop fully engulfed in flames."

Many people noticed the fire due to lots of smoke. "There were quite a bit of truck tires being stored in the quonset and that is what produced all of that black smoke."'

Thankfully there were no injuries to report and although the fire remains under investigation, Rocky View Fire is confident it was accidental and not suspicious. 

Despite record snowfall for the area, the fire serves as a reminder that grass fire season is right around the corner and Smith points out some safety tips to keep in mind. "With warm days but with still cool nights we tell people be really, really cautious of your space heaters in your buildings. Be very, very cautious of your barbeque because everybody's going to be out and barbequing again so make sure you've got clearance from your barbeques to anything flammable and as the nights start getting longer and people start having fires be careful of the dry grass around you."

Don't take any chances adds Smith. "If you see smoke dial 9-1-1 and fire departments will come out and look real quick. This year with high snowpack we're going to see really weird days where we're going to be called for floods in the morning and fires in the afternoon. We ask that people try to give the best directions they can to the dispatcher; if you are calling from a cell phone please try to get road and street names that way we can get there a lot faster especially in the rural areas."