ESTEVAN — Local firefighters responded to several calls for service last week, including an elevator entrapment, a semi collision and various alarms.
During the weekend blizzard, on March 11 at about 9:30 a.m., fire crews were called to a two-vehicle collision on the south side of the Roche Percee valley on Highway 39.
"We were alerted quickly that there were no entrapment and/or injuries, but both vehicles were in the middle of the highway in the valley," Davies said. "Crews established traffic control on both sides just to ensure the safety of the tow company and their staff while they were clearing up the debris."
The blizzard warning was still in effect for the Estevan area Saturday morning, but emergency services as well as the towing company were able to get to the scene. Davies said it was a process to remove semis from the scene and clear the highway.
Firefighters spent about five hours on scene as semis were towed away and the debris was cleared to a safe level. Further debris removal occurred after the blizzard was over. Davies noted there wasn't that much debris from the collision, and one of the semis blocking the highway was the main concern.
"There was as much debris as would be expected. It wasn't crazy as far as some of them go, but one of the trucks was broke down or stuck right in the middle of the road. So if you would have been coming from either lane, like coming north or south, he would have been restricting that traffic flow. So, the main concern was to get all that off the road," Davies explained.
In other recent news, on March 8 at about 4 p.m., fire crews were called to a building in southeast Estevan for an elevator rescue.
"Crews responded and were quick to get one occupant that was stuck in the elevator out. We made sure he was all good. Then crews isolated the elevator until the building management could get repairs completed," said Estevan Fire Chief Rick Davies.
The next day at about 9 a.m., firefighters were dispatched to a fire alarm at a building in central Estevan. Incident command responded and determined the alarm was caused by construction work happening inside. With no emergency happening, crews were stood down.
A fire alarm went off in a residence in the south-central area on March 10 at about 8:30 p.m. Firefighters responded, contacted the homeowner and quickly determined there was no emergency occurring, as they believe the fire alarm was triggered by cooking.
On March 12 at about 4:30 p.m., firefighters also responded to a commercial fire alarm that went off in central Estevan. Crews checked the building, but there were no signs of smoke or fire. People working inside were unaware of what was happening, but nothing was found, and it was deemed either to be a faulty detection device or possibly it was accidentally set off by the people inside, who didn’t realize they did it.
