Would have been devastating: Fire at Oak Hammock Marsh narrowly misses new building – Winnipeg [Video]

A stray bolt of lightning could have caused disastrous consequences at a Manitoba wetland and wildlife management area over the weekend.

Oak Hammock Marsh communications director Jacques Bourgeois told 680 CJOB’s Connecting Winnipeg that the fire, which came close to consuming a new building, was spotted by birdwatchers on a trail at the sprawling marsh.

“We got lots of calls last night — there were people doing some birdwatching on the trails, and they smelled the smoke and saw large flames coming from the area around the building, so they called the fire truck,” he said.

“It was a lot closer than I thought — when I came this morning, it was about 300 metres from a building that we were just about to open in two weeks, so it would have been devastating.”

Bourgeois said the building survived the blaze unscathed and that crews were on scene overnight battling the flames, …