HILDA, AB — The evacuation order has been lifted but the devastation remains for farmers in the Hilda and Schuler area.
A fire quickly began spreading through farm land, racing towards the Saskatchewan boarder.
Firefighters were brought in from all over Cypress County to help stop the fire from spreading.
Winds shifted several times, forcing firefighters in all different directions.
“You could have never out ran it on foot, it was moving that fast,” said Schuler farmer Ed Weisgerber, who was asked to help stop traffic heading along Highway 41.
“It would just tumble. It would blow straw that was burning ahead of it and then that would start the fire again so it wasn’t just flames moving, it was straw and it was crop residue, everything like that,” said area farmer Andy Kirschenman.
The fire spread far and wide, blackening everything in its path.
“I have never seen it burning like that, not at that speed, moving that fast,” Weisgerber added. “This is a corn field here, and I mean, it burnt like it was gasoline.”
Kirschenman lives just up the road and saw the flames coming. He says he did everything he could to stop them.
“I went and got a tractor and with a blade on the back of it,” he said. “The idea is that you are able to turn up fresh dirt so that you don’t have fuel for that fire.”
The winds were wicked, gusting upwards of 80 kilometres an hours, which made the fight nearly impossible.
“No amount of fire break could slow it down,” Kirschenman said. “It jumped the highway, easily, in seconds.”
Hilda residents were told to evacuate around 8 p.m. Tuesday night.
Kirschenman and his family made their way to Medicine Hat. They were afraid of what they’d find once they were allowed back home.
“The yard is quite a bit better than we thought it would be,” he said. “When we had pulled away and were watching, the yard was engulfed in smoke. We thought that it would be everything.”
His home was saved, but his parents, who live on the neighbouring property and are currently out of the country, lost their home. All that’s left is a smouldering foundation where his childhood home once stood.
“It’s not just damaged, it’s completely gone,” he said. “Built in ‘77, I believe, and that’s where they’ve lived since then. […] It’s the house that I grew up in as well so there’s sentimental value there.”
Rain began pouring a few hours later, soaking the soil and helping firefights extinguish the blaze.
The emergency alert was lifted and residents were allowed to return to their properties on Wednesday.
“Out here we grow sun flowers and corn but I don’t have as much as I did yesterday at this time. Durham wheat, fall rye, flax, canola, yellow peas,” Kirschenman said, adding that he farms with his father.
He said there will be a lot of decisions that will need to be made in the coming days, weeks and months.
“You don’t build a house in three or four days so it’ll be interesting to see,” he said.
