It was a relatively quiet year for local firefighters in 2011-12.
The Humboldt Fire Department (HFD) wrapped up another year of operations on October 31, recording a significant drop in the number of calls, especially in the rural area.
From November 1, 2011 to October 31, 2012, there were 59 calls which the fire department responded to - 44 in the city of Humboldt and 15 in the surrounding rural area.
That's a big drop from previous years when it comes to rural calls. In the previous year, the HFD had responded to 25 calls in local RMs; the year before that, there were 19 calls. In 2003, there were 39 calls from the RMs.
Part of the reason for the drop in calls this year, noted Fire Chief Norbert LeBlanc, is that there were very few stubble or grass fires this year - just five when in other years they have numbered 12 or 13.
"In a dry year, the calls to the RMs goes up," said LeBlanc. "The last few years have been very wet."
It was also a dry harvest this year, LeBlanc noted, which meant no overheating tractors or combines catching on fire.
Among the five stubble fires was one that occurred on April 24, when a controlled burn got out of control and burned part of the Wolverine Community Pasture south of Humboldt.
About 300 acres burned before firefighters got it under control. It was stopped in a bush area, right before it hit another grassland.
Another stubble fire burned a bit of a field just south of RONA on Hwy. 20, within city limits, on September 9.
Someone threw fireworks out a car window, which started a swath of wheat in the field on fire.
Most of the calls to the rural areas - seven to be specific - were among the 13 motor vehicle collisions the department was called to in the past 12 months.
The other six of those collisions occurred within Humboldt, a number which is a little higher than usual, LeBlanc noted.
One of the worst of the collisions occurred on September 25 at about 6:15 p.m., when a minivan was stopped on the highway, two kilometres west of Humboldt, waiting for a train to clear the crossing.
However, a truck slammed into the back of the van, pushing it into the train.
Miraculously, no one was seriously injured in the crash. The three occupants of the minivan, a woman and her two children, suffered minor injuries. The driver of the truck was not injured.
The female driver of the van did have to be extricated from her vehicle, however, which is where the HFD came in.
Another bad collision occurred within Humboldt. On July 29, at about 4 p.m., a truck was travelling west on 8th. Ave. when it was hit by a southbound car on Main St. The car had blown through a red light. It hit the truck and the force of the collision caused the truck to roll onto its roof. It also sent the car careening through Civic Park, where it finally stopped near a large condominium complex.
Again, those involved, which included a 29-year-old man and his two small children in the truck, and the 16-year-old driver of the car, along with an adult male and a youth, suffered only minor injuries in the collision.
There were four structure fires in the last year, most of those within the city.
The worst of those fires occurred on February 4, the night of the Humboldt Emergency Services Charity Event. Fire crews were called away from their annual fundraiser at about 11:30 p.m. to fight a fire at 1009 Main St. in Humboldt.
The blaze started between the storeys of the house, when an overloaded electrical circuit shorted out.
The fire travelled outside, up the side of the house, and started burning in the soffit near the roof, and between the roof joists. Firefighters had to cut between each ceiling joist to extinguish it.
Damage to the house was estimated at $100,000 at the time.
Another of the structure fires was started by a child. Firefighters were called to a house fire on the 300 block of 2nd Ave. in Humboldt just after 4 p.m. on December 5.
The fire started in a cupboard over the fridge in the kitchen. A nine-year-old had been playing with a lighter and started some papers in the cupboard on fire.
Luckily, the child and a younger sibling went to a neighbour for help and to call 9-1-1. The neighbour came over and threw some wet towels on the fire, extinguishing it.
Vehicle fires numbered just two in the past year, on par with other years but down from the six in 2010.
But these two fires both occurred on the same night, and were believed to be arson.
The HFD also responded to four chemical or gasoline spills, eight carbon monoxide alarms, which is about average, one confined space/elevator rescue, and about 20 false alarms.
That's the most false alarms reported in the past 10 years.
That high number is something that is not going to change, LeBlanc believes, due to the number of people who are having alarm systems installed in their homes. Often, people set off the alarm by burning toast or something else, and they don't know how to turn it off before it calls for help.
LeBlanc was quite happy with the small number of serious structure fires in the past year.
"Fire prevention must work," he smiled.
