grass fire 2014

It was a close call for residents and business owners as a large grass fire threatened Swift Current on May 1st.

The fire started north of the city along Highway 4 in the late afternoon and spread toward the city until the evening, burning close to a number of properties including Cypress Regional Hospital and the new joint-use school, which was nearly finished at that time.

"That one was significant," said Louis Cherpin, Fire Chief for the Rural Municipality of Swift Current. "We had to have the City come in to help us, we had a lot of graders and a lot of stuff laying around to give us a hand. We were able to save both farmyards and stop it before it got to the new school."

Liam Choo-Foo, Director of Education for the Chinook School Division, said they were literally inches away from losing their new school.

"We're getting so close to being able to open the doors of this facility and to hear about years of work going, literally, up in smoke was quite discerning," he said. "I think the response from the community as a whole, from the fire department right on through some private companies that supported, really helped to avert a disaster, not only for the new schools, but for the hospital and that whole area that really could have been really devastated by a natural occurrence."

Ecole Centennial and All Saints Catholic School would be completed on time for the start of the school year in the fall.