A man was taken to a Calgary hospital with burns to one of his legs after a fire in a burning barrel spread to a nearby quonset on a property northeast of Didsbury on Monday afternoon, says Didsbury Fire Department Chief Curtis Mousseau.
The April 22 fire occurred on a farm near the intersection of Range Road 273 and Township Road 322 in Mountain View County.
“The call came in initially as a grass fire at a rural residence, but due to winds and the dry conditions, it unfortunately expanded from a grass fire into an adjacent quonset and equipment,” said Mousseau.
“There was one injury to one of the residents who was attempting to put out the initial grass fire and who suffered some burns to his leg and was transported to hospital by AHS.”
The emergency call originally came to the Didsbury Fire Department. Didsbury then called for mutual aid from the Olds and Torrington fire departments, with a total of 20 firefighters attending the scene.
Pumper trucks and other equipment from all three departments were brought to the location.
“We were able to get the grass fire portion of the fire under control fairly quickly,” he said. “And then we were eventually able to extinguish the quonset fire.”
Asked if he has a cost estimate of the damage, he said, “We haven’t got that far yet. The contents of the quonset would have been a total loss. I know there was a combine and a truck in there for sure.”
There were no injures to firefighters, he said.
