Sask. community unites to battle fast-moving fire

It took a community effort to put out a fire in western Saskatchewan.

A blaze that started in a garage spread quickly, threatening Tramping Lake, over the weekend.

The village's mayor, Christine Lang, said the fire destroyed two homes, but no one was injured.

"It spread from the garage to some outbuildings in the same yard and then caught on some big evergreen trees and set the other house on fire, which was the neighbouring house," Lang told CTV News.

"Then from the evergreens, it jumped across the street and started another house on fire."

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The community, located 171 kilometres west of Saskatoon, does not have fire equipment and had to wait for crews from Kerrobert and Unity to respond.

"There was one main home with a garage and a trailer up front that was the (bearing the) brunt of the fire when we got there," firefighter and Kerrobert councillor Brad Murphy said.

"It was melting the siding off that house and the one porch was engulfed when we were there. So we got that house put out and we got the adjoining house on the other side."

Murphy said the house had already sustained some damage, but the fire kept moving.

“It had already skipped across Main Street and had lit the roof on another home across the street, which ended up being another total loss because of the severity of the situation where the fire was spreading. We had to basically centralize our resources and keep the fire from spreading more.

He said that many volunteers turned up to help put the fire out.

"The surrounding community, Hutterite colonies, farmers, local townspeople, everybody was out there pitching in, ready to help pull hoses, provide lots of water."

Murphy said the size of the village and the lack of any fire suppression system or hydrants made extinguishing the fire a challenge.

"All the water had to be hauled in and we used to fight it. So it took quite a community effort to keep it at the situation that maintained."

Lang said no one was hurt in the fires which left two homes totally destroyed.

She said the people in the homes have already been taken care of and the community has gotten on with the business of farming.

"The fire is out. Everything's taken care of. Now they're concentrating on getting their seed in the ground."