Fire crews from Foothills County, Black Diamond, Okotoks and High River braved the cold to put out a fire at the Eden Valley First Nation Tuesday.

The first call came in at about 6:00 a.m.

Foothills County Fire Chief Rick Sunnier says there's extensive damage to the water treatment plant.

"At this point the fire is still under investigation, it was the water treatment plant so critical infrastructure. When I got on scene it was the north building, there's actually a north and south building attached in the centre so it was the north building was fully involved, crews made entry knocked that fire down so the roof became compromised, so were the walls so we pulled the crews out and it became a defensive fire fight after that," he says.

He says they spent the next couple of hour getting the fire under control and dealing with hot spots.

A trackhoe had to be brought in to move the metal sheeting, the drywall and the wood separated so crews could hit the hot spots.

 Crews had to deal with the extreme cold as well.

"We always have to keep our water flowing and moving but we still do have a lot of equipment, hose lines freezing up, we had several truck's valves freeze, hose lines freeze up and so you try and keep the water flowing as best you can, but it's a real big problem because it starts breaking things like the equipment, the pumps and the valves if they start freezing up on us."

As for the men and women fighting the fire they have to work in shifts and go in and out of the fire trucks to get as warm as they can but that's difficult when their gear gets wet.

The Stoney Nakoda First Nation is working on providing potable water for residents.