Fireworks shot from moving vehicle on Saturday, grass fires sparked

RCMP believe the two vehicles were travelling together.

The fireworks, high winds and dry conditions in the area started numerous grass fires in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Sean Maxwell says grass fires are major issues, particularly in rural areas. Just three years ago a large grass fire near Hilda claimed the life of Cypress County volunteer firefighter James Hargrave, forced more than 200 people to evacuate and caused millions of dollars in damages and loss.

He said they are taking this weekend’s incident extraordinarily seriously.

“We’ve had states of emergency declared both in Cypress County and the City of Medicine Hat with regards to grass fires and people might think that ‘oh we’re well out of town’ but all it takes is a strong wind to whip a grass fire up and suddenly you’re destroying property, you’re destroying livestock, you’re possibly either injuring or killing people. It’s just … It’s something that you can’t not take seriously.”

Maxwell says they’ll be looking at enforcement and education when they find the people responsible.

“My understanding is there were possibly three separate counties in two provinces whose volunteer firefighter were called out on Thanksgiving weekend in order to put out grass fires that there was no need to have been started.”

The grass fires added another danger to what was already an irresponsible decision, said Maxwell. He said possible charges for shooting fireworks from one moving vehicle at another could include dangerous driving to stunting to criminal negligence.

The imagination can run wild thinking about the possible physical consequences as well, he adds.

“What if somebody is leaning out or it goes inside the vehicles and causes a fire?” he said. “We’re lucky nothing did happen.”

The two vehicles are described as a dark coloured Chevrolet Impala and a blue Ford F150.

RCMP describe the suspects as follows:

The three suspects are all described as caucasian males.

Suspect 1: Around 5’10”, 150 lbs, some facial hair on chin, “mullet-style” hair wearing a white “Moosehead Lager” t-shirt, blue pants, an olive green and black baseball hat and glasses

Suspect 2: Around 5’10”, 160 lbs, longer, wavey hair wearing a navy blue “American Eagle” hoodie with white “AM EAGLE” font, black pants with a black baseball hat and glasses

Suspect 3: Around 6′ tall, 150 lbs, longer hair on the back of his neck wearing a plaid green longsleeve shirt, blue jean and a black baseball hat with red trim, possibly a pick-axe on the front of the hat

Anyone with information relating to this incident is asked to contact the Redcliff RCMP at 403‑548-2288 or Crime Stoppers at 1‑800‑222‑8477 (TIPS).

Image from RCMP

by Chris Brown

Fireworks shot from moving vehicle on Saturday, grass fires sparked

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