The past week was steadily busy for the Estevan Fire Rescue Service (EFRS).
On Nov. 7 at about 7 p.m., crews were called to a motor vehicle collision eight kilometres west of Estevan on Highway 39, where a vehicle hit a deer.
“There was one injured individual in the vehicle itself. EMS actually treated and transported two people for further evaluation,” said Estevan Fire Chief Dale Feser.
Firefighters dealt with mitigating fluid leaks and cleaning up the highway as well as returning the vehicle to zero energy and providing traffic control until the towing company could safely retrieve the vehicle.
At about 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 4 firefighters were called to a report of a vehicle fire that was occurring in the central area of the city.
Crews arrived on the scene to find a commercial vehicle that was parked on the property that seemed to be having some sort of a fire occurring.
“However, upon further inspection by EFR crews it appeared that the refrigerator unit for the truck itself seemed to be suffering a little bit of malfunctioning and producing quite a bit more exhaust smoke than normal,” explained Feser.
They located the truck driver inside the hotel, asked him to come to the location and he confirmed that that was the case.
“It was indeed that no fire occurring and the vehicle was going to undergo some mechanical maintenance repairs to the refrigerating unit,” said Feser.
On Nov. 7 at about 1:30 p.m. crews were called out to a commercial fire alarm. Firefighters arrived to find contractors working on site. The building was undergoing the renovation process.
“We were able to quickly downgrade that particular situation there and reminded contractors to notify the monitoring agencies prior to commencing work in certain areas, especially if they are going to be doing work that’s going to create or mimic smoke, which was the instance here,” said Feser.
In the evening on Nov. 5, EFRS had their crews at the station for new hires training. This time they were practising some skillsets using extrication equipment.
“We tried to do a little bit of fun and see how their skills are and their agility with the use of the tools... We had 4x4 curbing that was used to construct a larger scale Jenga, in which they had to use the extrication equipment to move the blocks instead of their hands,” explained Feser. “It was a good way to get practical skills environment in place and still provide some really good training.”
And on Nov. 7 fire chief and several firefighters participated in the ECS Career Fair. The students could come and learn what emergency services in general, and the fire department, in particular, are about and how they can serve their community this way.
“There was quite a bit of interest. Of course, we had some interactive stuff with thermal gear. We brought a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), so they could try it on. We had out thermal imaging cameras out there, so they could see the tools that we do use in order to make our job a little bit easier. Definitely some interest generated in that,” said Feser.
