Estevan firefighters dealt with a residential fire and commercial fire alarms this week.
Monday evening saw fire crews dispatched to the central area of the city. The call came in at about 6:30 p.m. when a natural gas barbeque caught on fire.
By the time crews arrived on the scene, the homeowner had already safely closed the lid of the barbecue, isolated the natural gas source to the appliance, and the fire was effectively extinguished. Estevan Fire Chief Dale Feser said that there were no injuries as a result of the incident.
“It was in large part due to the quick-thinking actions of the homeowner. Natural gas barbecues are a little bit different from the propane barbecues as the natural gas source is coming from the house. And typically the valve is located fairly remote to the barbecue, so he was able to safely isolate the gas,” explained Feser.
He added that with propane appliances it might not be an option because propane tanks usually have short hoses and the fire can be occurring too close to it to safely isolate the source. Nevertheless, even though it was a natural gas barbecue, calling the specialists was the proper reaction.
“The homeowner did the right thing by calling 911 just in case he wasn’t able to (turn off the natural gas). But it was the best-case scenario and outcome of this particular call,” said Feser.
The next call came in at about 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday. A commercial fire alarm was activated in the central area of the city. Upon arrival, firefighters couldn’t find any visible smoke or flame coming from a multi-family two-story occupancy. Crews entered the building and found that the first floor alarm had gone off.
Firefighters assessed the entire building with a thermal imaging camera, looking for a cause of the alarm, however, no fire issues were found, so it was deemed to be a faulty detector.
“Crews advised the maintenance staff and the key holder for this particular location to contact an electrician and get it fixed,” said Feser.
However, the next day firefighters were called to the same location two more times. They responded to the first call and again with no smoke or flame at the scene, it was deemed to be a false alarm. A couple of hours later the alarm went off again, so maintenance managers were asked to fix the device as soon as possible to prevent the unnecessary dispatches for the fire station. Since there were several calls within 24 hours, there will be false alarm bylaw fees applied to the particular residency.
Another commercial fire alarm went off in the northeast area of Estevan on Wednesday. Once on the scene, crews came across the monitoring agency specialists that were doing maintenance. The works were reported ahead of time, however, the information was lost somewhere down the road due to some clerical errors.
“They generated an alarm during their testing phases there and the fire department was accidentally notified,” said Feser.
Despite the stormy weather, the fire department was also able to hold their regular training on Tuesday night, which saw volunteers practising hydrant drills and ladder training.
