Estevan Fire Chief Dale Feser was pleased with the department’s new universal-terrain vehicle (UTV) when it was pressed into service for the first time during a grass fire northeast of Estevan on Tuesday afternoon.
Members of the Estevan Fire Rescue Service were called to a grass fire near the Estevan Regional Airport just after 1 p.m. and remained at the scene for four hours, making it a good first test of the apparatus.
Feser said the UTV proved to be very effective in combating the grass fire.
“Obviously the reason why we purchased this UTV is its capabilities in field-type scenarios, as well as terrain where it’s going to be a little bit harder to traverse by foot and other conventional means,” said Feser.
“The tracks lent to this type of terrain very, very well, so it was used to do perimeter control. The larger equipment was used to go in there and do the actual take-down of the bulk of the fire.”
The UTV can do virtually everything with the exception for fording fairly deep water.
“It will negotiate through water. It can go through snow, mud, you name it,” Feser said with a laugh.
Members of the fire department were pleased with how it handled the terrain, and how it was quickly deployed from a trailer. Typically when the department responds to a wildland fire, the unit will be pulled by a wildland truck.
“Once that truck is up and in place, and staged, they’ll dock the trailer, and then those two crew members are responsible for the wildland truck to get in there for the quick and initial takedown of the fire,” said Feser.
The new UTV made the firefighters’ jobs easier on Tuesday, and the system they have in place worked well.
“When you’re looking at purchasing a vehicle and putting it into service … that’s part of the spec process is to make sure … it pretty much has everything you’re going to need,” said Feser. “Obviously there’s always going to be room for improvement, but those are usually … just minor fine-tuning adjustments to that vehicle.”
Most of the tweaking will come through adding hand tools that will be added to the apparatus over time.
The UTV was also deployed for a grass fire southeast of the city last Sunday, but it ultimately wasn’t needed.
While the fire department has handled two grass fires in the past week, there wasn’t an imminent risk of fire bans as of Wednesday morning. Feser said the Estevan area has been moving in and out of the extreme fire risk status in recent days. Temperatures have been dropping considerably at night recently, and the dew point is higher, which helps keep the fire risk manageable.
There is also precipitation in the forecast in the next few days, which reduces the need for fire bans.
“When we see some consecutive days without any foreseeable moisture on the horizon, that’s when we’ll look at putting in some fire bans,” said Feser.
The fire department doesn’t want to be constantly imposing and removing fire bans, and causing confusion for the general public and local farmers.
Tuesday’s grass fire did not pose a threat to the Estevan Regional Airport, nor did it cause an interruption in the airport’s operation. It did come close to a neighbouring corn field, but the fire department was able to keep the flames from infringing on the crop.
