‘It just erupted’: Alberta farmer recalls watching wildfire destroy his property

Firefighters are working to extinguish a fire in Sturgeon County sparked by an ATV over the weekend. CTV News Edmonton's Nav Sangha reports.

Sturgeon County says an all-terrain vehicle sparked the fire now burning northeast of Edmonton.

The fire chief says the driver tried to put out the flames before they spread.

Crews are still working to put out the fire.

At least one property was destroyed.

Cole Williams, the owner of that farm, says he lost his home, barn, and shop to the fire, along with most of his farm equipment and vehicles.

But, he says without the help from his neighbours and community, he would have lost even more.

“Everything burnt,” he told CTV News Edmonton on Monday. “You can see my gun cabinets in there. There’s not much. There’s nothing left. It’s all rubble.”

Williams, 30, has lived on the farm his whole life. Now all that’s left standing in his home is a brick chimney.

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He and his family were at his sister’s place Saturday evening when he saw smoke nearby, then he realized it was coming from near his farm.

“It was probably 5, 600 yards away. It was hot and little pieces of the grass were already on fire and it just erupted.”

He says it spread to his property within minutes, destroying everything in its path.

“My stock trailer burnt. My jeep burnt. Tractor and hay shredder, the gravel truck, my wife’s Durango.”

Dozens of people from the community helped Williams get the more than 150 animals on the farm to safety.

“Absolutely unbelievable the amount of people that showed up. Local farmers, people that have never touched cows before and they were trying to get them loaded,” he said thankfully.

Chad Moore, the chief of Sturgeon Fire described how the fire spread.

“Embers being blown ahead of the fire creating multiple spot fires which joined up into one larger fire area.”

The fire started in the Redwater provincial recreation area.

Moore says it was started by an ATV.

“It was either a mechanical or electrical issue with the machine that was in a very remote part of the park.”

He says surrounding municipalities are helping Alberta Wildfire crews.

An evacuation alert remains in effect, and that includes around a dozen properties in the immediate risk area.

The fire is about 70 per cent contained, but officials say conditions can change quickly and people should be ready to leave on short notice.

As for Williams, he’s thankful no one was hurt.

“Everybody’s safe, so that’s a good outcome for a crappy situation,” he said.