Fighting the wildfire that spread painfully close to Cochrane Lake area homes on Apr. 24 was tricky but successful.

Fire inspector Jeff Avery, of Cochrane Fire Services, says the town sent a complement of 11 people and equipment to help Rocky View County contain the rapidly spreading blaze.

"It was a really tricky fire to fight because we were just in that valley, and the high winds were just swirling around," says Avery. "Just when you thought you had it under control, the next minute it would go flying across the valley."

The fire investigation is in the hands of Rocky View County, and no details have been released as of yet. The fire did originate near the Horse Creek Rd. then pushed west, coming to within 15 feet of a few homes.

The fire took off around 4 p.m and at one point about 40 households were told to evacuate, according to the RCMP. RCMP cruisers preventing traffic from travelling into the area.

"I know for a couple of the homes we saw when we were going to fill up again it was within 10-15 feet," says Avery. "The burn marks were right up to their homes, so we were very fortunate we didn't lose any homes. It could have been a lot worse."

"A big kudos to all the departments that were there. It was a fairly big area that was burned, but we did get it knocked down in a pretty good matter of time."

Fire departments in the area have mutual aid agreements in place for fires like this. Avery said they were glad to help and have appreciated the help they receive Rocky View dept.in return.

Shortly before 7 p.m., Rocky View County told residents the fire was indeed under control and there would be no need to evacuate.

Some damage was done to one of the vehicles of the Cochrane Fire Services, but no members sustained injuries, says Avery.

With the dry and windy season upon us, town fire officials are discussing the possibility of issuing a fire advisory as early as Monday.