Wind whips wildfires around Calgary

A wind warning was brought into effect for Calgary and surrounding areas Thursday, fuelling grass fires through the afternoon.

COCHRANE (660 NEWS) — A fiery start to April has crews responding to a pair of wildfires around Calgary on Thursday.

It began with a blaze west of Cochrane, resulting in two homes being evacuated near the Ghost Lake gas station and the Wild Cat gas plant.

RCMP closed a portion of Highway 1A between Grand Valley Rd. and Morley Rd., for several hours as gusty winds whipped up the flames and smoke.

There was also a crash reported on the highway because of the thick smoke reducing visibility.

Kaitlin called 660 NEWS after driving past the scene.

“There’s houses. There’s a house down there but I couldn’t tell if it was on fire, there was too much smoke to see,” she said.

The Town of Cochrane tweeted that there was no threat to the community.

One of our reporters near the scene said the smoke is so thick he can barely see 20 feet in front of him.

As that fire was still growing, reports came in about another grassfire burning on the northern edge of Calgary, close to an RV and bus yard.

660 NEWS reporter Justin Slimm was at the scene, and said the strong wind is also playing a major role.

“It looks like that is absolutely spreading the fire. The wind is blowing, it looks like, to the east and that’s the direction that the smoke is going. Kind of towards Simons Valley Blvd.,” he said.

This fire also forcing Calgary police to close a couple of roads in the area while crews respond.

A wind warning was in effect for Calgary for several hours, urging caution with winds gusting up to 100 km/h.

The warning from Environment Canada ended just before 10 p.m.

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