Spot fires popping up within Waterton park boundary
WATERTON LAKES NATIONAL PARK — Spot fires have begun to spread from British Columbia into Waterton Lakes National Park. But only a small area of the park has burned so far.
Parks Canada said late Monday, Sept. 5 that fire was burning only around 0.5 hectares. Two helicopters were being used to drop water from buckets on the spot fires, which are in the Sage Pass area near the northwestern boundary of the park. A total of five helicopters are available to the national incident management team which is on site with three initial attack crews.
Water pumps and sprinklers are being put into action to protect facilities, and other resources are on their way to the park.
The fire was only five hectares in size when it was first spotted from the air in the Flathead Valley of British Columbia Wednesday, Aug. 30. It spread quickly Saturday, moving toward the Alberta boundary, and at last word was burning around 4,500 hectares.