The forest fire that tore past the community of Kerry, Manitoba Tuesday afternoon is now under control.

Fire crews from Piney, Sprague, Woodridge, La Broquerie, and Manitoba Sustainable Development joint forces at around 2 PM to begin battling the blaze.

“It was a very smoky, and very widespread,” comments Piney Fire Chief Ina Ruttle. “It involved residential and crown land, so it was a huge area.”

The fire came incredibly close to certain buildings near Kerry (photo credit: Savannah Alguire).By Piney Reeve Wayne Anderson’s best guess, the fire consumed just over 1,000 acres between his municipality and the RM of Reynolds. He commends Ruttle and her team for their work in preserving a half a dozen homes that were under serious threat of being torched.

“The fire departments were on the scene quickly and were able to save all of the nearby cottages and houses,” offers the reeve. “But it was scary there for a while. Apparently the fire got as close as two feet from the perimeter of one house; the lawn is all burnt but they were able to save it.”

Anderson says, in the end, the only structure casualties were a garage and a few old sheds. Considering the scope of the fire, he says that is pretty good.

“There was not much damage other than the bush that was burnt. They worked really hard and I’m really proud of them.”

After a long day of firefighting Ruttle’s team and the assisting crews were able to head home around 1 AM. She says the process of putting out such a large fire while moving through dense brush in full protective gear is exhausting.

“I’m tired,” she laughs, “that about sums it up.”

Ruttle says the fire is now mostly extinguished but members will continue monitoring the region for the next few days to both douse any remaining hot spots and ensure the fire does not flare up again.