Firefighters still battling hot spots in major grass fire in Millet

Crews from the volunteer fire department in Millet were back on the scene Monday of a major grass fire, putting out hot spots.

"They'll probably be taking a lot of trees down, putting out hot spots, and just making sure there's no threat of this fire spreading if the wind does come up," Capt.Trevor Palmer said Monday.

• Emergency crews battle major grass and structure fire in Millet

The fire, reported on Sunday afternoon, destroyed an outbuilding on private property on the west side of Millet. A dozen or so vehicles in various stages of restoration inside and outside the building were also lost, Palmer said.

"We saved a home and we had a second garage, it was starting on fire, and our crews did a great job in saving that structure entirely," he said.

Thewindcombinedwith the warm temperatures made fighting the fire difficult, Palmer added.

The fire call came in just before 5 p.m. Sunday.At its peak, about 50 firefighters from Millet, Leduc, Mulhurst Bay and Wetaskiwin were working on the fire. Most werevolunteers.

"We had flames shooting over 100 feet in the air coming out of some of the trees," Palmer said. "It jumped the highway and it got into even more brush on the other side of Highway 616."

The cause of the fire will be investigated, he said.

Millet is 40 kilometres south of Edmonton.