In 2018, Estevan Fire and Rescue Services (EFRS) members were one call short of the 2017 volume of calls for service. Annual numbers show that in 2018 the EFRS received 252 calls for service in total. Fire Chief Dale Feser noted that the numbers were a bit lower than expected.
“We actually were expecting a 10-15 per cent increases, that’s what we have seen over the past five years timespan. However, it did level off there for us. We had a few months where we weren’t very very active, however, over the broad spectrum of the entire year we were pretty active,” Feser said.
Thirty-six per cent of overall call volumes were false alarm calls. In other words, 96 calls for service were cooking-related issues, faulty detections or just general reports, which called for the fire department’s assistance, however, after checks nothing was found.
“It could be smoke in the area, but there was no actual fire that was occurring, so that could be coming from a fire pit or anything of that nature,” Feser explained.
The number of motor vehicle collision-related calls dropped in 2018 and consisted 29 per cent of total call volume versus 37 per cent in 2017.
Feser believes that consistent public education campaigns partially helped to decrease the number of cases of dangerous driving leading to accidents. Also in 2018 the winter weather was more co-operative.
“Last year (2017) we had a little bit of a different driving environment around the spring and the winter time as well. This year (2018) we had a better year for driving conditions,” Feser said.
The EFRS received 17 calls for service for gas leaks, which consists of natural gas and carbon monoxide leaks.
On top of that, there were 76 calls for service due to fire alarms, which include any other type of calls such as smoke in a building, a wildlife, a working structure fire and so on.
Only four calls were due to fuel leaks. Those leaks could be the result of vehicle collisions or some kind of malfunction in vessels.
Besides their emergency-related duties, Estevan firefighters had a number of training programs and charitable campaigns.
“We were active there in the training and in the activity side of the world. There we had 110 engagements last year. This consists of our regular training, as well as PR engagements, station tours and what not, people coming in to see us,” Feser said.
Every call for service was taken in the best intentions and just as serious as any other.
There were a few major structure fires, such as a house fire on Albert Street in January. Another big fire happened at the Willow Park Greens Trailer Park in July.
Yet, it was the weather that often caused more damage resulting in extended power outages and creating work for the EFRS.
“One was when the summer storm had gone through and a power plant suffered a direct hit. And another one was a lot of the frost that was in the area for an extended duration of time, the rime frost causing issues,” Feser recalled.
After all, in 2018 Estevan didn’t witness any major natural disasters or any accidents where there was a significant lost of life or injuries.
