It was a close call for Melanie Joe when she inadvertently started a brushfire near the corner of Khenipsen and Tzouhalem roads Monday afternoon.
“It was an accident,” she said.
South End firefighters were called out just before 1 p.m.
“It had pretty much almost burnt itself out by the time we got there,” South End deputy chief Brad Coleman said.
“The perimeter lines were still burning. It kind of burned toward the rock as opposed to up the bank where the houses were, which was kind of lucky,” he added.
Coleman estimated the fire to be about 50-by-100-feet in area.
“It was basically right along the marshy river section, and mostly blackberries and underbrush,” he said.
Joe mentioned she had been out picking blackberries at the time. She was relieved the fire burned out as fast as it did, and that firefighters got there so quickly, as the flames got within about 10 feet of her house and weren’t far from another home.
A unit from the Duncan firehall was called out with a pumper truck as South End had a truck in for service.
Drought conditions have left the fire danger at extreme.