Rapid action by a group of people in the Powell Lake area resulted in the extinguishment of a wildfire.
According to Terry Gustafson, the fire was spotted on the west side of Daigle Point, which is on the mainland. He said there is a community campsite in that same area. He was heading up to Rainbow Lodge at about 8:30 am on August 8 when something looked awry.
“I saw smoke coming out of the bush in that area,” said Gustafson. “I sent a guy up to look at it and he said ‘yeah, it’s burning good.’ He broke some of the bark off the tree to try and stop it from climbing up other trees. I got hold of one of the guys in a cabin nearby and told him to contact forestry.”
It was definitely a lightning strike, said Gustafson.
“The tree itself was actually blown off the stump and it was laying in the bush, but the pieces that were in the ground were still burning,” he added. “It was not a really big tree; it was maybe a foot and a half wide. There were a couple of other trees nearby and the flames were starting to climb up. It wasn’t really big but it had the potential to become big.”
Gustafson said he went to get pumps and by the time he returned there were some people from adjacent cabins who heard there was a fire and were at the site shovelling and running a bucket brigade to put out the fire.
“I got the pump running and we spent a couple of hours pouring water, shovelling and digging, trying to get the heat out of the ground,” said Gustafson. “By that time it was in the ground.
“Luckily, it was probably only about 150 feet from the shoreline. Just about 50 feet above the tree there is a slash from logging a couple of years ago. It would have been some pretty good fuel there going up the hill.”
Gustafson said he has a cabin on the lake and keeps hoses there. He said he went to the cabin and grabbed all of the equipment he could to fight the fire.
“I’ve got lots of hose because if we ever get a fire going, it would just destroy things,” said Gustafson. “The barge I was on was all set up for firefighting, too.”
Provincial forestry crews were not involved in extinguishing the blaze. Gustafson said they were advised later that the fire was out.
“A lot of people showed up that were local and they were shovelling and bucket brigading until I got back with the pump,” said Gustafson. “Another guy came from halfway down the lake with a pump and we had it under control by that time. A lot of people came together for it.
“I’m the kind of guy to take charge, get it done and deal with it and deal with forestry later.”
Gustafson said when he originally spotted the smoke, he thought it may have been a cabin with a fire going in a wood stove, but when he got close enough to see around the island, it was evident that the cause of smoke was a wildfire.
“Half the province is burning up and we definitely don’t need another one,” said Gustafson. “Conditions to deal with the fire were pretty good. The big thing was getting onto it quickly and not waiting for somebody else to come and do it.”
