The Battleford Fire department has been busy this spring. One of its most recent calls had an engine, six firefighters and a command vehicle responding to a semi tractor on fire on Highway 4 about 13 kilometres south of the town.
Fire Chief Larry Gabruch said the call came in at 4:40 p.m. Monday. A fire had started in the engine compartment of the truck owned by a farmer. It was hauling a trailer containing liquid nitrogen, used for fertilizer.
Fortunately, said Gabruch, it was a benign liquid. They were informed of that by dispatch on their way to the scene, with that information coming from the driver of the truck, and they confirmed it upon arrival.
The fire was doused with class A foam, useful in rural areas because it extinguishes rapidly with moderate amounts of water, said Gabruch.
While RCMP took care of traffic control, the burned out truck was loaded on a deck by Vista Towing and the trailer was hauled back to Battleford. The road had to be closed for about 15 minutes, said Gabruch. His department was on the scene for about an hour.
The call originally came in from Derrick Hoffman, a truck driver returning in his private vehicle to North Battleford after a long weekend holiday. He dialed 911 when he saw the smoke coming from under the truck's hood and radiator fluid leaking out.
"Within two minutes that truck was toast," he said.
He stayed at the scene with the driver of the burning truck. The fire department arrived 10 or 15 minutes later, he said. He was concerned at the time that the trailer would explode.
Gabruch said the type of tanker did appear to be one which would carry gasoline or other hazardous material that might explode, but fortunately this load was benign. The trailer's commodity was not immediately obvious, however, as it was not required to be placarded by the trailer's owner, said Gabruch.
The work of the Battleford Fire Department was one of the topics discussed by Battleford Town Council at their regular meeting of Tuesday, May 21.
Councillor and volunteer firefighter Ames Leslie passed on a thank you from a family in the rural area whose yard was saved from fire by the diligent actions of the Battleford department.
"It was actually the first fire of the year and [the farm family] wrote a letter thanking the fire department for how professional and co-ordinated they were," said Leslie.
They were relieved, he said, and wanted to pass on kudos to the fire department and the town for having such a well-trained and well-equipped group of firefighters.
"Some recognition is always nice," he said.
So far this spring, the firefighters have been busy, he added.
"It's been four times in the last 18 hours," said Leslie. "Last week there was a call every day from Monday to Saturday."
He said the department has probably had close to 20 calls already since the snow's melted.
