Large clouds of smoke billowed from the club house of a distinguished golf course southeast of Edmonton as it burned down early Saturday morning.
Strathcona County, Alta., firefighters spent hours getting the flames under control at the Northern Bear Golf Course club house. Crews were impeded by the extreme cold and its effect on pump ports and water lines, according to Dana Terry, deputy chief of operations for the county’s emergency services department.
“It moved so fast. It was crazy,” said Alison Rayner, a resident of the area, who witnessed the fire on her way home from an event.
Northern Bear is a pro-level golf course: last year, management signed a deal with the Canadian Tour — part of the PGA Tour — to host the ATB Classic through 2025. This year’s tournament is slated for June 27-30.
Fire crews responded to fire alarms at the golf course shortly after 3 a.m. MT, Terry said in an email to CBC News.
When firefighters arrived, the southeast side of the club house was on fire and flames were coming out of its roof, he said. But soon the club house was “fully involved” and firefighters were “fighting a defensive fire in very difficult fire conditions.”
The province of Alberta has been under an extreme cold warning for several days as a polar vortex slowly passes through western Canada. Edmonton experienced record cold temperatures Friday, but Environment Canada forecasted frostier conditions over the weekend.
Temperatures in the Edmonton area were expected to settle around –40 C to –50 C, with brutal wind chills making it feel near –55, according to the national weather agency’s warning.
Rayner had finished working a shift at a casino for her son’s school early Saturday morning when she discovered smoke — enough to signal it wasn’t from home heating, she said.
Shortly before 4:30 a.m., she drove past the course’s entrance and saw the fire, she said. Rayner pulled into her neighbourhood to park her truck, then ran up a short hill on the golf course to watch the scene unfurl.