A brush fire burns in the Argo Bush southwest of Biggar on April 22, 2019. (Twitter/Karen Itterman)

By CKOM News

Grass fires

Brush fire forces evacuation of area southwest of Biggar

Apr 23, 2019 | 5:50 AM

A wildfire near Biggar forced the evacuation of an area southwest of the town on Monday, as fire crews grappled with flames in a densely forested area.

Reports of smoke in the Argo Brush Recreation Area began emerging around 1:30 p.m.

By 5:15 p.m., Biggar RCMP said they were evacuating the area between Highways 4 and 51, and Duperow and Tower Roads.

Farmers in the region told 650 CKOM they were working to create fire breaks of their own to stop the flames, but the blaze jumped those barriers in multiple cases.

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Brittney Matejka, a Global Saskatoon reporter on the scene, said ATVs were transporting water tanks to firefighters battling the blaze on Monday evening.

The Biggar Fire Dept. offered “no comment” when asked to provide details about the firefighting effort.

Grass fires ignite across central Sask.

The Biggar-area fire was one of many firefighters dealt with across central Saskatchewan on Monday.

Traffic was halted on Highway 3 between Prince Albert and Shellbrook due to a large fire near Holbein, an area that lived under threat of evacuation for a portion of 2018 due to another wildfire.

Warman Fire Chief Russ Austin confirmed his crews contained one blaze near where the old and new routes of Highway 305 meet, just west of the city. The fire had sprouted near four structures, which crews managed to protect.

At the same time several agencies were called to the Clarkboro Ferry crossing east of Warman, where a grass fire started and quickly spread south along the riverbank. Two homes were protected from the flames, while the grid road and access to the ferry crossing was closed to allow crews to work.

The blazes come after firefighters from several jurisdictions worked for nearly 12 hours to get a large grass fire under control just west of Saskatoon, prompting the Reeve of Corman Park to urge people to observe fire bans in their area.