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Thunderstorm causes flooding and sparks a fire

Aug 2, 2018 | 5:40 AM

The severe thunderstorm that ripped through the County and City of Grande Prairie Wednesday afternoon caused a lightning-sparked fire, flooding and the Town of Beaverlodge declaring a ‘Local State of Emergency’.

Highway 43 was closed for some time as water filled the town like a lake, according to Environment Canada, 50.6 mm of rain fell Wednesday.

The Grande Prairie Regional Emergency Partnership (GPREP) Operations Centre was activated in response to the extreme flooding but has since been deactivated as water levels in Beaverlodge have gone down.

 

 

 

 

At the other side of the county, fire crews were called to a blaze at 5:23 p.m.

Lightning sparked an oilfield battery to catch on fire between Bezanson and Clairmont, on Township Road 714 and Range Road 45.

The blaze was contained to the lease site and private industrial fire control companies were left in charge to put out the fire.