With strong wind gusts and the possibility of record-breaking temperatures in the forecast for much of southern Alberta this week, there is now a fire ban in place for the Lethbridge River Valley.
The decision to order the fire ban was made after Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services was called out to a grass fire early Tuesday morning in the River Valley near Scenic Drive and 10 Avenue South.
When crews arrived, the fire was burning up the hill through dry grass and vegetation, but firefighters were able to bring it under control before it reached nearby homes.
The Lethbridge fire department says unseasonably warm temperatures, strong winds, low humidity and not much precipitation in the forecast, have created a high fire risk and the potential that a fire could spread quickly through dry grass and bush.
“We’ve been monitoring the risk, and with the weather we have been having – this weather that the snow melts so quickly, not a lot of moisture – it’s a huge risk here in the city,” said Lethbridge Chief Fire Marshall, Troy Hicks.
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“The levels are extreme right now. Our levels in the River Valley and all over the city are more or less like they would be in August during a drought. It is so dry. The smallest little spark can spread so quickly that it’s just very easy to get out of control.”
Hicks says the high winds, which were up to 80 km/hr overnight in Lethbridge, can also blow embers from a fire hundreds of metres, starting more fires, faster than fire crews can put them out.
Just hours after the fire ban was announced, Lethbridge fire crews were called out to another grass fire in the coulees, near the Mountain View Cemetery.
Police say fire crews had it contained by mid-Tuesday afternoon.
The fire ban means that no open fires are allowed anywhere in the Lethbridge River Valley.
Residents are also being asked to be careful with disposing of cigarettes and other smoking material by making sure they are fully extinguished and disposed of safely.
On Tuesday, the daytime high in Lethbridge was forecast to be in the mid-teens, and the warm weather is expected to continue into next week.
On Wednesday the mercury is forecast to soar as high as +17 C which would smash the record high which hit +13.3 C on Jan. 14, 1942.
The record low for Jan. 14 in Lethbridge was -38.9 C in 1950, while the normal daytime high at this time is -2 C.
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