DW-Fire Report
Three calls for fire department Monday
The Estevan Fire Rescue Service has had a busy day Monday, with three calls in less than a five-hour span.
The first was just after 9:30 a.m. for a residential fire alarm in the rural municipality of Estevan, to the northeast of the city limits. Fire Chief Dale Feser said crews found that the alarm was triggered by steam from a shower, and there wasn’t an emergency occurring.
The second was before 11 a.m. for a commercial fire alarm in southeast Estevan. Firefighters arrived on scene to find a construction company was conducting maintenance inside by cutting concrete and using gas-powered equipment.
“The airborne concrete dust, along with the exhaust from the gas-fired equipment, caused the alarm to go off,” said Feser.
The property owners were reminded that any time there is property maintenance happening to contact the monitoring agency and ensure they are aware of the work in advance, so that it doesn’t cause an unnecessary call for the fire department.
The final call was at 1:45 p.m. for a two-vehicle collision on Carbon Avenue in Bienfait, about a block from the Bienfait Weldon School. A vehicle struck a vehicle that was parked. The fire department, the Estevan RCMP and Emergency Medical Services attended the scene.
“There were fluids leaking on the ground,” said Feser. “There were some very minor injuries as a result.”
Occupants of the moving vehicle were treated at the scene of the collision, and then the scene was turned over to the RCMP for an investigation.
In other recent activity for the department, firefighters were called to a carbon monoxide (CO) alarm on March 18 from north-central Estevan. Crews gained entry with gas detection equipment, only to find that there wasn’t any CO in the home. The call was due to a faulty detection device.
A few hours later, they were notified of another CO alarm in northwest Estevan. It also proved to be a faulty detection device.
The fire department was notified of an outdoor fire in the backyard of a residence March 21 in north-central Estevan. Crews arrived to find the homeowner was operating a fire pit in the backyard.
“The homeowner was doing exactly everything that was required as per the fire pits,” said Feser.
He reminds the public to only use proper burning materials for the fire pit, which means they can’t burn tree leaves, small twigs or yard refuse from spring cleaning.
A commercial fire alarm was from east-central Estevan on March 22. Cleaning crews had a mishap in which a vacuum cleaner bag blew up, and the airborne dust triggered the fire alarm.
A training night was held on March 19 with self-contained breathing apparatus lessons and restricted access drills.
Feser said those are always popular activities with the firefighters.
