Staff
A grass fire last night on Eighth Street near the curling club was the latest in a rash of fires in the area.
Fire Chief Frank Sheppard said firefighters responded to the blaze around 10 p.m.
The fire, which actually consisted of several small fires in an area, did not damage any nearby structures.
Higher humidity and cooler temperatures at that time of the day helped mitigate the spread of the flames, Chief Sheppard noted.
The fire likely was caused by a person, he added.
Chief Sheppard said daytime burning of brush or grass fires is not permitted.
Fires only can be started no sooner than two hours before sunset and extinguished no later than two hours after sunrise.
“We do a have a burning bylaw process and we encourage people to follow that—and for the most part they do,” Chief Sheppard noted.
“But every once in a while, there will be some irresponsible behaviour which leads to issues like this.”
Chief Sheppard said fire departments under the Rainy River District Mutual Aid Association had a busy month.
April saw six residential fires in Rainy River District, three or four grass fires, and several other smoke alarm calls.
The grass fires can be attributed to human behaviour and dry conditions.
The residential ones, though, have involved a series of very unfortunate incidents, including electrical problems and equipment failures.
“The vast majority of the house fires have been accidental from a number of different considerations,” Chief Sheppard said.
“It’s just one of those things where you don’t have a lot of control over it.
“We do what we can with prevention, and fortunately we still have a pretty robust response capability here so that helps,” he added.
“It allows us to be pretty proactive and minimize any extension of this.”
