Advertisement

Large grass fire burns in north Calgary farmer’s field

Click to play video: 'Calgary police investigating whether field fire was deliberately set'
Calgary police investigating whether field fire was deliberately set
WATCH: Calgary police are looking into whether a fire in a farmer's field in the far north end of the city was deliberately set. As Lauren Pullen reports, wind was the big wildcard in the fire fight – Sep 11, 2020

Calgary fire crews were called Friday morning to a large grass fire burning in the northern part of the city.

Calls reporting the fire began coming in at around 10:30 a.m., according to Carol Henke with the Calgary Fire Department.

Henke said the fire was in farmer’s field located north of Stony Trail and west of Deerfoot Trail — at 144 Avenue and 1 Street N.E. It’s not known how the fire started, but just before noon, Henke said it was the size of several football fields.

In an update just before 12:30 p.m., emergency crews said about 80 acres of grass and chaff from a crop had burned.

“The field, having been harvested several days ago by combine, is covered with the resulting dried chaff (leftover organic debris),” the Calgary Fire Department said in a media release.

Story continues below advertisement

About eight apparatus and 20 firefighters were on scene attempting to contain the blaze by going around the perimeter of the fire with water and fire brooms.

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

By 12:30 p.m., firefighters had the blaze contained and were working on dousing hot spots.

Henke said the wind was working in the firefighters’ favour, as it was fairly minimal over the lunch hour.

The fire was producing quite a bit of thick smoke, but Henke said no structures or buildings were in danger.

No injuries have been reported.

Calgary police said they received a tip from a witness that the fire was deliberately set. Police are asking anyone with information or who may have seen suspicious activity in the area to call the non-emergency line at (403) 266-1234 or Crime Stoppers.

Story continues below advertisement

Sponsored content

AdChoices