Wildfire relief still nowhere to be seen

Smoke from a massive grassfire on the Blood Reserve near Lethbridge billows across the sky over an area highway.

It’s been more than three months since a huge grassfire torched pastures, fence lines, and property just west of Lethbridge and landowners are still waiting to see if they’ll be compensated for their losses.

Glenn Van Buuren’s farm was directly in the path of the fire that threatened Coalhurst and areas of west Lethbridge.

“It was probably the worst day of our lives coming back here and knowing that everything we worked so hard for was going to be gone. We’d have to rebuild everything,” Van Buuren said.

The wildfire burned close to 5,000 hectares of grassland and farm fields.

Van Buuren has insurance on his equipment, but the money the insurance company will be giving him will be far less than it will cost to replace everything.

He figures they’ll only be getting about one-third of their expenses.

Many property owners affected by the grassfire in September are hoping that disaster assistance from the province will help them rebuild their livelihoods.

But that aid is still forthcoming, and the county hasn’t even filed a claim with Alberta yet.

County officials say that they can’t file a claim until they have all of the information and reports on the fire itself.

“The unfortunate part of it all is we haven’t yet received a final report on how the fire actually started, nor have we recived a final billing from SRD. Until we do both of those, we can’t submit for a disaster claim. That’s held up the process” says County Reeve Lorne Hickey.

The grass fire broke out when a power line went down on the Blood Reserve during high winds and spread quickly.

However, the county still needs to have final confirmation on that.

Van Buuren say he’s been told that someone is responsible for the huge blaze, but wants the province to step in for landowners sooner rather than later.

“They should be stepping in and helping people in this circumstance immediately so they can continue on with their lives. If it takes years in the courts to come up with an answer to see who is actually at wrong, then I think that’s what our provincial government is there for.”

The fire prompted evacuations in the neighbourhood of Mountain Meadows, a trailer park at the north end of the city of Lethbridge, parts of Township 822, and the entire community of Coalhurst.

A second blaze near Milk River destroyed 26,000 acres and was stopped just four kilometers from the community.

With files from CTV Lethbridge