The Estevan Fire Rescue Service (EFRS) received a number of calls for service last week. Fortunately, there were no major problems in the Energy City.
On March 12, firefighters were called to a report of a natural gas leak at a business in the northeast area of the city. The call came in during the afternoon. Crews responded, and after the check determined that it was a false alarm.
The next day, another fire alarm had the rescue crews out to the northwest part of Estevan. This time the system went off in the building at about 5 p.m. That fire alarm turned to be false as well.
On March 14, another fire alarm went off in the southeast area, and when crews arrived they found out that there was nothing to worry about as the alarm turned to be false.
The week came to an end with a minor vehicle collision on March 17. Deputy fire chief Rick Davies of the EFRS had details on that.
“Right in front of the fire station here we responded to a two-vehicle MVC (motor vehicle collision) with Estevan Police (EPS) and EMS, but it was minor nature and our assistance wasn’t really required too much there,” said Davies.
“We just make sure that vehicles are isolated, there is no leaks or anything like that, assist the EPS where we need to with the traffic control and stuff like that.”
In addition, the EFRS held its weekly training on March 12, and it was new recruits' time. They’ve been on board since January and now are getting ready to become fully-fledged first-responders.
“We have normal firefighter training every other Tuesday night, and the off Tuesday nights new recruits come in and we are trying to bring them up to speed on techniques and the equipment stuff to get them comfortable in responding to incidents,” said Davies.
After the last recruitment, EFRS has just under 30 members, which is almost the maximum capacity for the department.
“I’d say 30 members is our comfort level for the amount of people that we have. Right now with those new recruits, we are sitting pretty good,” Davies added.
