CANMORE – A plume of smoke was visible on the Spray Lakes road, driving around the mountain towards the reservoir, as two vehicles were burning after a Dodge Journey caught fire at the Spray Lakes reservoir on Wednesday (June 12).
"I just finished work early because it is such a beautiful day and I said I'm going to hike up east end of Rundle," said Canmorite Annie Marquis, owner of the Dodge.
"I got home in Canmore, packed my stuff and as soon as I got up here, I parked in and started seeing all the smoke coming out of the car and I took my pack and got the hell out of there."
Marquis said when she got out of her vehicle she noticed flames underneath and called 9-1-1.
RCMP, Canmore Fire-Rescue and Alberta Parks responded to the incident.
"We received a call to a vehicle fire, it looks like two vehicles burned – we'll leave it to fire to determine the cause of it, there is nothing suspicious we can see," said Sgt. Stan Andronyk .
The official cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Canmore Fire Captain J.T. Gill said firefighters were fortunate to get the fire under control quickly before it was able to spread to more vehicles.
"Suppression was pretty quick, the [firefighters] pulled the line as soon as we got here and then we had to damn the area around it to avoid oil from getting in the water in the front of the vehicle," Gill said.
Alberta Environment and Parks is aware of the possible contamination.
"If any oil did get into the water it would be maybe 100 millilitres, lots of stuff was stopped prior to getting into the water ... there is possible contamination, but it is quite minimal," Gill said.
The owner of the Dodge said she has no idea why the vehicle would catch fire and felt bad for the owners of the other vehicle.
"You know what, no one is injured, so I think that is the most important thing," Marquis said. "Maybe I just needed a new car, I don't know."
