An early thaw with lots of dry, exposed grass meant an early start to wildfire season for the Estevan Fire Department. At about 1:00 in the afternoon on Friday, March 20, they got called out to deal with their first wildfire of 2020 when a someone doing what they thought would be a controlled burn rather lost sight of the keyword: controlled. 

"This is the type of year where we've had a lot of exposed vegetation for the majority of the year," said Fire Chief Dale Feser. "Just because we're not quite into full-blown spring here and there's still snow on the ground doesn't mean we can't still have a wildland fire." 

According to Feser, the fire department rushed to the scene and were able to contain it with no injuries. They found the cause of the fire was an unattended burn barrel. Someone had been burning garbage on their property, and the wind had helped the fire spread quickly. 

An early thaw and spring wind conditions might make the early part of wildfire season particularly tough on the fire department this year. But Feser said there's another reason they might see more severe wildfire trouble in the coming months: self-isolation. 

"We do have a lot of individuals that because of the social distancing and self-isolation at times," Feser said, "they're going to be trying to get a lot of these other jobs done because they may not be busy at their regular places of employment. People need to be ever more diligent to make sure they are indeed doing this correctly and safely."

This time of year, fighting wildland fires presents another challenge for the fire department. Although the grass may not be soaking up water, meaning it's more flammable, the ground is soaking up the melting snow, making it softer and therefore harder to drive big fire engines on.

"Some of our equipment will have to stay to well-beaten paths there," said Feser. "We don't want to venture off into fields where it can become extremely soft and the vehicles may become stuck. We may have to do some perimeter control versus getting right in there and taking an aggressive attack."

The fire department was also called out to two car crashes on Friday, one of which involved a car and a deer near Bienfait. In that case, the car was still drivable, and the animal in question was killed by the collision.