Waterton fire remains out of control, but less aggressive
PINCHER CREEK – With the winds that have been fanning the Kenow fire slowing down a little Tuesday night (Sept. 12), officials involved in the battle against the wildfire provided an update on the situation.
“It is out of control, it’s still classified as out of control, and it will probably remain out of control for some time, until we see a significant change in the fire behaviour,” stated wildfire information officer Leslie Lozinski, who also noted that the fire has now grown to roughly 33,000 hectares.
“The fire behaviour yesterday (Sept. 11) was extraordinary, it was very aggressive,” continued Lozinski. “We were working with extreme winds, we had very low humidity and we had warm temperatures. Today, the fire behaviour is less aggressive because of the weather. You can feel it out there, the humidity feels a little bit higher, it’s a little bit cooler out there, the winds weren’t as strong as they were predicted to be today, which is all great things for us.”
She went on to explain that the smoke, which is generally seen as a negative for health and aircraft operations, assisted firefighters.