Ranchers and residents south of Chain Lakes are hoping the snow falling helps to finish extinguishing the Chimney Rock Road fire in the MD of Ranchland.

Debbie Jo Webster and her husband Tony run a bed and breakfast on Chimney Rock Road and were in the United States when the fire broke out.

When they got home they found the wildfire came within a few metres of their home.

"We relied on our community and our neighbours," said Debbie Jo. "It was a little unnerving to be down there and listening to what was happening up here."

But she concedes there wasn't anything they could have done if they had been at home.

Debbie Jo said so far the cause of the fire is a tree falling on a power line and the wind took care of spreading it.

"If it wasn't for Justin Mowat I am pretty sure we would have lost our house."

He went in and spread water around their home and there isn't even any smoke damage to it.

"Two days earlier we called our neighbour and asked her to check to make sure all the windows were closed."

Which kept the smoke from entering the house.

"We haven't lost anything. We do have a few animals that are singed and we will keep an eye them to make sure they are okay."

Since getting home things have been really busy with over 100 firefighters continuing to work the fire.

And she is hoping the hot spots that have been flaring up will be out now with the snow.

'The only thing we have to watch out for now is that the snow doesn't create a crust over the top and encourage the fire to go down deeper and give it a place to simmer and fester until the conditions change and kick it back up again."

The best result would be for it to stay warm enough to melt the snow and finish extinguishing the fire.

There has been a lot of work going on.

"It has just been great to work with everybody so far."

Remediation work is underway with crews restocking a dugout, putting fences back up that were bulldozed over when fire guards were put in.

"This landscape will heal. It will come back and it will come back greener with all this fresh ash fertilizer."

"It will be a great spring, it will be wonderful to see spring."

 

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