Wheat field fires sparking up across southwestern Ontario

Firefighters in Amherstburg put out a wheat field fire earlier this week in the midst of the crop's harvest.

Crews responded to the 2500 block of Middle Side Road on Tuesday around 6:30 p.m.

"I was working out in the garden and all of a sudden I look up and there's smoke. There's fire!" exclaimed nearby resident Rick Rock.

"It started spreading, I mean really, really quick," Rock said. "It could have been really, worse out here because there's about 140 plus acres."

Rock praised how quick fire officials responded before putting the blaze out.

"You start seeing, oh, you know, we're not far from here at all and everything can go up. You know, it could spread that fast and get out of control and I can understand these forest fires and that, especially when it's dry. It just goes up and it's just out of control," Rock said.

"We don't have a definitive cause, but it would appear that was one of those fires that was caused by the heated under portion of some of the farm equipment," said Amherstburg Fire Chief, Bruce Montone.

"A lot of farm equipment does not necessarily have all of the sound suppression that a regular passenger vehicle has. So you have a lot more heated parts underneath. And of course, that can easily ignite," Montone said.

Montone explained field fires often start due to overheated farm machinery during hot and dry weather spells, but also noted lightning strike and flicked cigarette butts are common causes as well.

He said, "We've just followed a very, very, hot and dry spell. And so obviously the fire indices are up. And so that means the ability for those crops, or even just grass in the field, to be ignited much more easily."

"Typically those kinds of fires move very quickly, with or without the wind. Simply the fire itself will generate momentum. So if there is a lot of dried material, crops or otherwise, the fire is going to progress. Obviously, it's then aided by any wind in the area and it can move quite a bit faster than people might expect."

Montone noted crews deployed the water cannon from inside a fire tanker to assist with fire suppression while also utilizing some "old fashioned" techniques to extinguish the flames with minimal damage.

"We always encourage, particularly crop farmers, to have some on board fire extinguishing ability. But in this case, we used brooms just to simply stamp it out," Montone said.

Montone told CTV News there have already been several minor field fires this season. Fire officials in Chatham-Kent said several field fires have been reported in 2024 as well.