The Estevan Fire Rescue Service (EFRS) was called to two separate vehicle rollovers Wednesday, with one resulting in a fatality.
Early in the afternoon, a report of a single-vehicle accident came in. Firefighters were dispatched to a location 20 kilometres north of Estevan on Highway 47, where a vehicle rolled over, left the road surface and ended up in the east ditch.
“RCMP, Estevan city police and EMS also attended the scene. We provided traffic control for a while until other agencies arrived on scene to take over. It was a fatal incident, and the cause of the accident is currently under investigation by RCMP services,” said Estevan Fire Chief Dale Feser.
The Mercury will have more details on this accident as they become available.
The same day, at about 4:30 p.m., fire crews were called to another report of a single-vehicle incident of the same type. The rollover occurred on Highway 39 just west of Hitchcock. The report stated that there were four people in the vehicle and there were possible injuries.
Firefighters assisted with the traffic control on scene and provided required help to RCMP and EMS.
“All the people were able to self-extricate from the vehicle and were … treated for injuries on scene by Estevan EMS. The vehicles were isolated, checked for leaks and then the scene was turned back over to RCMP services to further investigate the cause of the collision,” Feser said.
While there were no travelling restrictions in the area Wednesday afternoon, the road conditions weren’t the greatest with strong winds, blowing snow and ice patches.
“The roads definitely had some touchy spots. When we were responding, there was definitely quite a bit of side wind that was occurring … And we get patches where the snow would melt and then freeze the highway and cause some slippery conditions there,” Feser said.
“You definitely have to pay attention to the road surfaces and adjust your driving speed accordingly.”
Firefighters were also called to a report of a noxious smell in a multi-family building in the north-central area of Estevan Tuesday evening. Firefighters used the special equipment, and while they could sense the smell the devices didn’t pick up any out-of-normal readings.
“We are just going to keep our eye on that,” Feser said.
