CFB Suffield accepts responsibility for grass fire that ranchers believe killed their cattle

The CFB Suffieldbase commander says there is no denying the military is responsible for a grass fire in southeastern Alberta this week, but they are still waiting for the results of a high-level investigation to determine who is liable for the deaths of more than 100 cattle and damage to nearby ranchers' property.

"The legal establishment of liability is actually a complex issue. We need to prove the causation, the fault and the damages, and we can't assume that just because it looks like our fault that it actually was,"Lt.-Col.Mike Onieutold the Calgary Eyeopeneron Friday.

• 'The most horrific scene': Alberta ranchers take aim at CFB Suffield for grass fire that destroyed livestock

Onieusaid the grass fire was the result of the military detonating an old artillery shell on the base, which is about 300 kilometres southeast of Calgary. This is something that is routinely done, he said. However, in this case, "the fire got away from us fairly quickly" due to the weather conditions and expanded rapidly and off the base.

When asked why the military would detonate artillery during a fire ban, Onieu explained that aside from military training, the base also houses anoil and gas operation, 12,000 oil wells, thousands of kilometres of infrastructure, grazing cattle and a defence research establishment. Soit's difficult to stop they work they do for long periods of time, he said.

"[Unexploded ordinance] pose a very fatal threat to people, and if we are doing something where we know people will be moving around, we can't have an unexploded bomb in their vicinity," Onieu said.

"In this case, the point of the investigation is to determine why we needed to detonate an old bombWhy did we do it and was it necessary?" he said.

Ranchers meet to examine options

Ranchers in the area say they have had problems with the base for years. Around 100 people packed aschool gymnasium in Bindloss, Alta., on Thursday to discuss issues withCFBSuffield. They said they are looking to explore legal options.

Rancher Ivan Schlaht told the gathering he's fortunate he didn't lose any property, but got emotional when he talked about losing a hundred head of cattle. He called the aftermath of the fire "one of the grossest things" he's seen in his life.

"This can't keep going on. We've been fighting this for years," said Schlaht. "In the summertime, I don't know which I look at, the sunrise first or to the west to see how big the smoke is. We all sit on pins and needles."

Rick Strankman, the MLA forDrumheller-Stettler, attended the meeting but didn't have any immediate answers.

"Well, first off, I don't particularly know how this will fall into certain emergency management guidelines," he said. "So we have to go back through our staff and make inquiries."

Schlaht says meeting and talking is a positive first step.

"We've said our piece, and if our politicians got some push and get mean and whatever else, I'm hoping to get some results," he said.

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