About 100 people living in the Sharp Hill neighbourhood in the Airdrie/Balzac area were evacuated Tuesday afternoon because of a fire near Highway 2 that moved east for hours.
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Police said the fire approached the southeast side of Airdrie “at a high rate of speed due to severe winds.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, city officials said all residents whose homes hadn’t been impacted by the fire have been allowed to return home.
The City of Airdrie said one home was lost and one “sustained substantial damage” because of the fire.
“High winds quickly extended the fire from Airdrie into Rocky View County and grew to approximately 20 hectares in size,” read a statement from the city.
“Due to the sheer amount of equipment we were able to send to the scene, this fire did not do anywhere near the damage it might have done given the extraordinary winds,” Rocky View County spokesperson Grant Kaiser said Tuesday.
The Airdrie Fire Prevention Bureau is investigating the fire and officials said cause and damage estimates are not available at this time.
As of 2 p.m. on Wednesday, city officials said Rocky View County Fire Services and the Airdrie Fire Department remained on scene monitoring for hot spots.
For information, visit the Rocky View Safe & Sound website here or call 403-230-1401
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WATCH: Global Cameraman Dani Lantela and Scott Fee were on scene as a building was destroyed as a grass fire burned near Airdrie.
Justin Mahoney was driving south on Highway 2 at around 5 p.m. when he saw the smoke.
“I was just headed to the mall and it looked like a big dust storm at first because of the really strong winds. But then, as we got closer, we could start to see flames,” he said.
Powerful winds were wreaking havoc across other parts of southern Alberta and fires were spreading because of the strong wind gusts.
WATCH: Viewer video sent in by numerous Global viewers shows a grass fire burning north of Calgary.
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Much of Alberta was under a wind warning on Tuesday.
With files from Global’s Emily Mertz
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