Fire crews from several municipalities responded to a large structure fire at a cannabis facility in Aldersyde, Alta. Around 5:47 a.m. Wednesday, Foothills Fire responded to a large commercial warehouse on fire along 82 Street E., north of High River. “When they arrived on scene, they had seen smoke and flames coming out of the second-floor windows,” said Will Scheerhoorn, battalion chief. “They did try to do a quick interior attack, but it was too hot, too much for them, and so they stuck strictly to defensive operations.” Inside the warehouse, hundreds of kilograms of dried cannabis added to the combustion. Crews from High River, Okotoks and Diamond Valley also responded to attack the blaze. “Good interagency collaboration — everybody worked well together,” Scheerhoorn said. Crews were seen battling hot spots around the lunch hour, as heavy machinery tore down the remaining parts of the building. According to the AGLC website, the facility is Grass Monkeys Premium Craft Cannabis. CTV News spoke to the owner of the facility, who says he is “devastated” by the blaze, and he’s upset his staff have lost their jobs. Grass Monkeys Premium Craft Cannabis operated at the facility for five years. Its website says it offers cannabis to the medicinal markets as well as a fun craft product experience for recreational customers. Ariel Freeman, who manages Chinook Cannabis in High River, says she is devastated for the staff, as it impacts the entire local cannabis industry. “We’ve been working with Grass Monkeys for about two years now, so it’s devastating,” she said, adding her store has used Grass Monkeys as a distributor for some of their products. “We know a lot of their staff. We’re very close to them. We’ve built heavy relationships with them.” She added the cannabis community in the area is tight-knit. “It’s going to be a very hard thing to recover from. I feel for them more than anything in the world because that would be such a hard day,” she said. “It will impact a lot of people because we don’t know how those workers will be able to branch back out into the cannabis industry, which heartbreaks us all.” As for the blaze, fire crews say the inferno was challenging to get under control. “The fire itself is quite contained within the steel structure, so it’s very difficult to fight,” he said. “Obviously, water has always been an issue over in this area, and with it being a rural response, we got firefighters coming from different communities. So the response time is delayed here compared to the city.” Scheerhoorn says the call came in through its 911 dispatch centre, and the cause remains under investigation. No one was injured.
