Over the weekend the Altona Fire Department responded to a bale fire that took 16 hours to extinguish.

The fire took place east of Altona on road 7 and began Saturday evening.

"The fire basically spread from burning garbage over to the bale pile... the wind changed direction and got very strong and blew some embers from the burning garbage over to the hay bales," explained Altona Fire Chief Greg Zimmerman.

He said approximately 60 bales were lost in the fire. The Winkler Fire Department also came to assist with the bale fire Saturday evening.

The same day the department also responded to a medical assist call on Saturday morning.

On Sunday, the Altona Fire Department returned twice to the same bale fire because the fire started up again.

Finally, on Monday, the department responded to a field fire at 3:20pm on Road 9 NW, which took over 2 hours to extinguish. Zimmerman said the cause for this fire isn't known at this time.