Estevan Fire Rescue Service (EFRS) members were called to mutual aid calls for assistance twice in recent days and also responded to a fire alarm.
The latest call came in on Sept 9 at about 9 a.m., when Estevan firefighters were asked to assist the Bienfait Fire Department in fighting a structure fire in the Village of Roche Percee.
“We received a call that there was a structural fire in Roche Percee,” said Bienfait Fire Chief Adrian Bachorcik.
Crews arrived on scene to find that there were a couple of small structures on fire. One was a trailer and the other one was a garage. The structures weren’t occupied at the time of the fire and nobody that was injured.
“Nobody was at home at the time. I do believe one of the neighbours called the fire in,” said Bachorcik.
Estevan fire crews assisted in bringing the fire under control and then turned the scene over to the Bienfait Fire Department. Bienfait fire crews spent about four to five hours at the scene, ensuring that no fire danger remained.
“I’d like to thank the Estevan fire department for coming out and helping us, because we short on manpower on that call,” said Bachorcik.
Both structures were a total loss. The cause of the fire remains unknown.
The other call for Estevan Fire Rescue Service (EFRS) came in on Sept 5 at about 5:30 p.m. In that case, EFRS members were helping the Torquay Fire Department in fighting a combine and farmland fire. The fire occurred about six kilometres north of Outram.
“Crews arrived on scene to find that the Torquay Fire Department was suppressing what was a rather large fire, so we assisted in suppression efforts and brought the fire under control,” said Estevan Fire Chief Dale Feser.
Estevan fire crews dedicated about four hours to that mutual assistance call.
A combine malfunction was a cause of the equipment fire, which, in turn, set the dry vegetation on fire.
The combine sustained serious damage, and a significant part of the field was lost to the fire. No people or cattle were injured.
On Sept. 12 at about 10:30 a.m. the EFRS responded to the report of a fire alarm at a commercial occupancy located on the east side of the bypass in the RM of Estevan.
Once on scene, crew couldn’t see any visible smoke or flame from the exterior of the occupancy. Firefighters contacted a company representative that allowed access onto the property to find the cause of the alarm.
After a search of the building it was found that a duct work sensor had been triggered for the buildings HVAC system due to dust and a plugged filter. Crews turned the scene back over to the company representative and cleared the scene with instructions to replace the filter and troubleshoot the detection head.
