BANFF – Hotel guests have returned to Banff Rocky Mountain Resort after prescribed fire operations that got out of control near the Banff townsite on Wednesday afternoon (May 3) forced the evacuation of the resort and nearby horse corrals.
Parks Canada fire experts say crews and helicopters were bucketing flames well into the evening after the fire jumped from the west side of Banff Avenue to the east side around 4 p.m. when winds whipped up, burning towards the horse corrals and nearing Mountain View Cemetery.
With rain forecast for Saturday, there is a sigh of relief.
“By about 11 p.m. last night, the fire was being held outside of the burn unit boundaries,” said Jane Park, Parks Canada’s fire and vegetation specialist and incident commander for the Compound Meadows prescribed fire.
“Today, we will continue to have firefighters on site to deal with the remaining hot spots and containment, supported by aircraft.”
The Banff Rocky Mountain Resort and Mount View Barbecue were evacuated as a precaution, while horses from the corrals were moved by trailer to the safety of the Banff Trail Riders barns on the south side of the Bow River by the recreation grounds.
About 225 people who were attending a conference in Banff and were to be hosted at Mount View Barbecue – a private event and reception venue – for dinner were welcomed by Fairmont Banff Springs. Mount View Barbecue took all the food there instead in what was a massive but successful undertaking.
“Those areas were evacuated in an abundance of caution and we allowed folks back into Rocky Mountain Resort just after nine o’clock last night,” said Park. “The Mount View Barbecue will continue to operate with normal operations today.”
In preparation for the bigger 125-hectare prescribed burn of Compound Meadows planned for Friday, crews spent Wednesday setting up sprinkler systems around Banff Rocky Mountain Resort and the horse corrals in the event of a worst-case scenario.
In addition, the Town of Banff’s fire department also had two structural protection trailers and a Wildland Engine on scene.
Crews also started black-lining – the pre-burning of grasses and shrubs adjacent to a control line before igniting a prescribed burn – to protect the wildlife exclusion fence on the Trans-Canada Highway during the main burn.
Park said a dramatic wind shift occurred as crews continued black-lining work by the highway fence around 4 p.m.
She said they had been monitoring the weather constantly, even hourly, which is part of standard protocol during prescribed burn operations.
“We experienced an unforecasted wind shift and increase in wind direction with winds up to 28 kms an hour after only having winds below 10 kms an hour to that point,” said Park.
“The fire moved through the actual burn unit and at a fairly high rate of spread towards Banff Avenue, and did spot across the road. The excursion was approximately three hectares outside of the unit.”
Parks Canada’s fire teams, including certified participants in the Women-in-Fire Training Exchange (WTREX) who are in an intensive 12-day training exchange May 1-12, meant there was a rapid response to the evolving situation.
“Having the calibre of firefighters and incident management team members that we have had, I can safely say that was the cream of the crop that we had here,” said Park.
“That really did help in the rapid response and the coordination with the other agencies we had in a really short period of time.”
With temperatures expected to again soar into the mid-20s Celsius again Thursday, Park said firefighters are on site to deal with the remaining hot spots.
“We will be watching the fire behaviour as the day progresses, and there will likely be an increase in fire behaviour from what we see right now,” she said.
“This morning there’s very limited fire behaviour – no open flame that was visible from the road. Our crew will continue to assess, and focus on the hot spots to prevent any further growth on the fire.”
Rain is also forecast for Saturday, which was taken into account as part of the extensive planning for the prescribed fire.
“We look at the weather very carefully and the reason we were aiming for this window of opportunity to burn is we did see there was a downtown in rain and cooler temperatures in the forecast,” said Park.
“That is one of the benefits of prescribed fire compared to wildfires, is that we can look for these downturns in the weather and try to ignite ahead of them so that rain then assists in containment.”
While this prescribed fire had ecological objectives to reduce the amount of pine and spruce trees within these meadows, stimulate aspen and grass growth, and restore habitat in an important wildlife corridor, one of the main goals is to help protect the Banff townsite in the event of a future wildlife.
“A lesson that can be learned is that by looking at the type of fire behaviour we saw yesterday, is that with things like climate change and the fact we do have large build-ups of fuel all across western Canada, you can see how quickly fires can develop,” said Park.
“These types of prescribed fires where we already have resources in place, do reduce the risk of larger wildfires that can impact communities. If we had a wildfire that we were not anticipating and we did not have resources on hand in the numbers that we did, the result may have been quite a bit different.”
Parks Canada did not have information on the exact nature of the fire damage to the horse corrals, but noted flames burned a small portion of the highway wildlife fence and an entry sign on Banff Avenue.
The Bill Peyto entrance sign on Banff Avenue was damaged.
“Today, we will be doing quite a bit more assessment,” said Park.
The Banff Lighthouse Association said all people and horses were safely evacuated, with Banff Trail Riders kindly offering to keep horses at their barns on the south side of the Bow River.
“All horses and people on site were evacuated and there was no loss of life, which is paramount because people and livestock are the most important,” said Alanna Pettigrew, the association’s president.
“It’s early in the season, so there weren’t a lot of horses there, but they have been evacuated and they were moved to Banff Trail Riders, who kindly allowed us to move our horses there.”
The Banff Light Horse Association has 42 horse corrals on site.
"There’s some damage, but we don’t know the extent of the damage at this point,” said Pettigrew. “It’s a significant event.”
On Wednesday, the Banff Legacy Trail and the Banff Avenue/Trans-Canada Highway interchange were closed as crews battled the blaze. Banff Avenue was reopened on Wednesday evening and Parks Canada will review whether or not to reopen the Legacy Trail on Banff Avenue today.
The Town of Banff was quick to send out an emergency alert to residents about the rapidly evolving situation on Wednesday.
“At 4:05 p.m., Parks Canada asked for additional resources,” said Jason Darrah, the communications director for the Town of Banff.
“We supplied pump 62 with a crew of four, engine 62 with a crew of six, two command units and a chief and deputy.”
In the coming days, Parks Canada will conduct what is called an after-action review of the incident.
“These are done to review operations and to assess what went well, what we can improve upon,” said Park.
“Our main focus right now is dealing with hot spots and containing this fire, but rest assured as we move forward in the days to come, we will be looking at all of the operational aspects of the incident and ensuring we make adjustments where required.”
