In the neighbourhood of 30 volunteer firefighters from Lacombe, Bentley, Blackfalds and Clive battled a large shop fire overnight at Meinema Farms Ltd. west of Lacombe.

Lacombe Fire Crews were called out at midnight to the custom farming operation on the D&M Road (RR 27-5), just south of Milton Road.

The roughly 40,000 square foot agricultural shop was engulfed in flames when crews arrived and Lacombe Fire Chief Ed van Delden says a portion of the roof had already collapsed.

“Was a wood framed, metal clad building, which usually causes us trouble just because the roofs collapse very quickly and then the metal of course keeps us from being able to access, well, we can’t get water underneath it”.

A number of farm implements were stored inside, as well as an office area and some business records van Delden says they were able to salvage.

The Fire Chief says the frigid temperatures definitely presented some challenges and the need for some extra resources.

“We had some issues there for sure, freezing up, kind of windy, and it was cold as well, so that’s why we kept as many people as we did there on the scene, just that so we could allow people to warm up and take refuge for a bit and cycled people through throughout the night actually”.

Fire investigators are on the scene today looking into what sparked the blaze; van Delden says damages easily exceed a million dollars.