Men spot fire, use axes, shovels, and shoes to fight it outside Yellowknife

A man says he and three others fought awildfire in theN.W.T. Thursday.

Dan Hosfeldsaid he noticed smoke coming from near a cellphone tower in the Prelude Lake area outside Yellowknife after a lightning strike at around 1:30 or 1:45 p.m.

He estimated it would take about 45 minutes for any firefighters in Yellowknife to arrive and, with concern for properties in the area, he and his brother took a fire extinguisher androde a quad to the scene of the fire.

"It was a little bigger than we thought," said Hosfeld.

He estimated the fire was about a third of an acre in size when they got there, growing to about an acre and a half.

TheDepartment of Environment and Natural Resources did not immediately respond to requests for information.

Hosfeldsaid he and his brothercalled hisnephew and afriend to assist, along with the fire department and the cellphone service providerhe believes is responsible for the tower.

They regrouped with shovels and axes, cut down some of the trees and used moss tostop the flamesfrom spreading.

"Basically, you're stepping it out. I think their tennis shoes probably are gonna need to be replaced all of [ours]," Hosfeld said with a laugh.

He saidhe believed the fire was outafter about an hour and a half. As they were leaving, they saw police had arrived.

Hosfeld said he's never tried to put out a firelike this before.

"If you can help without really risking yourself, you try to do that, and that's what we did," said Hosfeld.