UPDATED: Crews Continue To Monitor Clarendon Fire

**Updated at 5:57 a.m. Friday**

Water bombers were brought in Thursday evening to help battle a forest fire near Welsford.

Emergency crews were called to the area of Wildwood Lane in Clarendon around 3 p.m. Thursday.

“It’s stretching a couple of kilometres right now,” Welsford fire Chief Dave MacCready said in a phone interview around 8 p.m. Thursday.

Fire crews from Welsford and Hoyt were called to the scene, along with staff from the Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development.

MacCready said firefighters managed to stop the fire from damaging one nearby home in the community.

“It came in fairly close to the vicinity to one but that was stopped,” he said. “There’s only one other home that we’re keeping an eye on but we don’t think it’s going to be in any danger.”

By late Thursday evening, water bombers had made several passes over the fire, which since had grown to 8.5 hectares in size.

“We are presently attacking the fire from the air and don’t expect there to be any issues after the air tankers are done,” Nick Brown, a spokesperson for the Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development, said in an email around 9 p.m. Thursday.

By 11 p.m. Thursday, the Welsford Volunteer Fire Department said fire operations had wrapped up for the day.

“The firefighting foam that the bombers dropped is and was very effective,” the department said in a Facebook post.

“The public may see flare ups as it gets dark, there is no need to panic and Forest Rangers are tracking, and crews will be back in the morning to continue mopping up.”

According to the post, one firefighter was injured while battling the blaze and was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.